Mexico, Magdalena Bay

Pure MagBay 🇲🇽

Travel details

Available spaces

Fully Booked

Trip duration

12 nights

Travel dates

21 November, 2027 - 03 December, 2027

Price per person

6.999 $ per person

Trip Highlights

Anything Can Happen 🐋 MagBay is a front-row seat to nature’s underwater drama! Not just the sea lions and the marlins steal the show, but occasionally whales, tuna, bonito and even mahi mahi come in to hunt the bait balls. In a place as vibrant, any encounter can happen! This area is alive.

Snorkel & Freediving 🤿 Magbay is a primarily a snorkeling and freediving destination because its incredible marine life, like striped marlins and bait balls, is found near the surface, making tanks unnecessary. The fast-paced action and the need to quickly maneuver in the water are better suited for the agility that freediving and snorkeling offer.

Authentic Operators 🛥️ The Gallant Lady is a luxury liveaboard dive boat operated by Nautilus, offering intimate adventures with a maximum of 12 guests for a personalized experience. It features spacious cabins, gourmet dining, and top-notch amenities, ensuring comfort between dives.

Trip description

Magdalena Bay on the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico, hosts one of the most concentrated wildlife events on earth during the late autumn sardine run. Vast bait balls form just outside the shelter of the bay, drawing striped marlin into fast attacks, Bryde’s whales lunge feeding from below, and sea lions hunting in coordinated groups. Pelagic sharks, mobula rays, sailfish, and bottlenose dolphins round out the cast.

Encounters happen by snorkel and freediving from local pangas in open ocean, not by scuba. The daily rhythm is set by a spotter plane scanning from the air for action. Conditions vary, drops are fast, and the action is fleeting. A reasonable level of fitness and good water skills are essential.

Outside the bait ball window, Magdalena Bay is a quiet mangrove system anchored between barrier islands of striking white sand dunes. The operators are former fishermen turned ecotourism captains, and the income from these trips directly supports that shift. Remote, authentic, and one of the most underrated big animal destinations on the planet.

Nautilus Gallant Lady

Nights

Price per person

6.999 $

DATE START

21 November 2027

DATE END

03 December 2027

The Gallant Lady is a small motor yacht based out of Cabo San Lucas, set up for expedition trips down the Baja coast and out into the Pacific. Comfortable ensuite cabins, an open dive deck at the back, a shaded dining area, and an upper sundeck with a view of wherever we happen to be anchored. The crew is local and runs these waters year round, which shows in how they read the conditions and position the boat for the action.

For this expedition we have chartered her in full for an extended double trip, two of the standard Magdalena Bay weeks back to back. This longer format is only available as a private charter and not on the open market. More days on the water, more chances at the bait balls, and the time to sit out a weather day without sacrificing the action.

Included

Superior suite 12 nights
Full board
Non-alcoholic drinks
Spotter plane support
Professional guides
Some scuba dives depending to itinerary/weather
Incl. weights, tanks, guides
9 full days looking for bait balls and other action (Snorkelling & freediving)

Not Included

Flights to SJD (Cabo San Lucas)
Pre- post hotel arrangements
Crew tips
Harbour fee $35 (to be paid on board in cash)
Dive & trip cancellation insurance (highly recommended)
premium suite (1 cabin) 950 € per person

Day-by-day program

Meet at SeeCreatures Cabo by 5pm for the short transfer to embark the Gallant Lady. Board, briefing, dinner, then set sail up the Baja coast on the 15 hour run to Magdalena Bay. The sea is usually calm inside the bay and barrier islands where we anchor at night. Bait ball interactions happen in the open Pacific just outside.

Late morning arrival at the south end of Margarita Island. An easy first day to settle in. Snorkel with sea lions, and weather permitting dive the remains of a passenger ship that sank over 200 years ago, and a WW1 submarine wreck.

The routine that defines this trip. Spotter plane scans from above, radios coordinates to the boat, and the pangas race to drop you on the action. Snorkel and freediving only. The first hit is usually the biggest shock: how fast it all happens, how loud the slap of a marlin’s tail sounds underwater, how the bait ball moves like a single organism.

Same drill, different conditions. Mother Ocean decides what each day looks like. Some days the bait ball is just under the surface and you see the show in clear blue. Other days you drop into murky shoulder to shoulder fish that runs on for a hundred metres. Striped marlin are the most common predators, followed by sea lions and sharks.

Striped marlin day if the spotter finds the right action. They tear through the bait ball from one side then the other, lit up neon blue along their flanks when they get excited. Multiple drops across the day, no hurry.

Bryde’s whales are the heavyweights of the sardine run. They lunge feed from below, opening their mouth at the bottom of the bait ball and the whole school disappears in one go. Less frequent than marlin, but the encounter when it happens is something else.

Continuing. The spotter and pangas know these waters cold. They pivoted from fishing to ecotourism and you benefit from their decades reading these seas. Trust the call, drop in when they say drop in.

Sea lions are the loud ones at the bait ball, hunting in coordinated groups, racing through the school. Some days they are the main predator and the marlin keep a polite distance. Always playful with the snorkelers between feeds.

Another day on the water. By now the routine feels natural. The rhythm of the boat. Eat, dive, eat, dive. The call from the bridge, gear ready before you even hear the splash.

Working the patterns. The skippers know which beaches and which depths produce on which winds. We move when the spotter calls and stay when the action sits.

The final full day chasing the run. Anything the group wants to return to gets a second shot. Sunset on deck, debrief with the photographers and divers.

Held back as the spare day in case earlier days got hit by weather. If we used all our bait ball days well, today is for a couple of scuba dives at the south end of the island, and a landing on the Margarita Island sand dunes, vast white dunes rolling down to the sea. Mid afternoon departure back toward Cabo, gentle downhill ride.

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