This once-in-a-lifetime expedition takes you deep into Baja, where you’ll sail the Sea of Cortez and then slow your pace to witness gray whales up close as they near the end of their 10,000-mile migration.

The first two weeks are expedition sailing, moving camps each night along the Baja coastline aboard a 22-foot Drascombe Longboat. You’ll learn foundational skills like sail handling, anchoring, and how to read conditions at sea, rotating through every crew position as you go. Tiny coves and sandy beaches that larger boats can’t reach become your campsites. On shore, there’s coastal desert to explore on foot and clear water to snorkel.

Photo credit: Kirk Rasmussen

Then the course moves to the Pacific side of the peninsula. The North Pacific gray whale makes a round-trip migration each year, and one of the most important nurseries on that route is right here. You’ll spend days observing them from small boats — learning about their behavior, biology, and the conservation efforts that brought them back from the edge of extinction.

Like every NOLS expedition, the skills you build here go beyond sailing — you’ll take on real leadership responsibilities, make decisions that matter, and travel as a crew that has to function under pressure. 

Photo credit: Oscar Manguy