Monday, December 11, 2006

America - The End


We got up and stumbled bleary eyed into the dawn ("Woss happenin'? Oh, I'm at Camp!"), shovelled down some toast and cereal and a dramamine, built sandwiches and filled water bottles. Why dramamine? This was whale watching day and we were about to spend several hours on the Pacific. Warm clothes packed, and we set off for the marina, as we got to the coast we could see the restless Pacific. It was not a surfing day, the Pacific for once, was. The flat sea stretched away into the fog, the surface only broken by a pelican feeding frenzy, elsewhere it was mirror smooth. I rued scoffing the dramamine, $5.00 down the drain and probably totally uneccessary given my Island Heritage (IH).
We arrived and met up with Susan our naturalist, who while we were waiting for the boat asked the question,
"Any Birders?"
Margie, "Yeah!"
Paul and Nick, "!"
Nick, "I say Old Chap, spot of interestin' tarmac over there. Check it out?"
Paul, "Rather"
There was a Birder, he was dressed head to foot in matching North Face Gear and sported a beard, a beanie, and some expensive binoculars. His brain was wired up as Birders brains are, any speck floating disdainfully three miles from the boat would be spotted, identified, sexed, aged and catalogued before anyone else could raise their bino's, let alone fiddle with the focussing bits.
Our boat arrived, and with it Captain Tom, and Engineer Den, it was obviously a bit early for Den, as his teeth were missing, sadly talking about such things as sea-lions, Stellar's Sea-Lion, ceteceans, sea and surf would be challenging for him - and us. We climbed nimbly (IH) aboard and set off, Captain Tom regaling us with nautical niceties over the Tannoy, such as, "If you have to throw up do it over the side." I nearly added, "To leeward." but refrained, no-one likes a smart arse.
We passed under the Golden Gate bridge, a relatively rare occurrence and one that bestowed a wish, or so Tom said. I debated, it was an agonising choice between seeing some whales or ever having sex again, for the sake of my fellow passengers, I eventually plumped for the former.
Outside the Golden Gate we hit a very small swell, mainly due to a shallow sea, this was the Potato Patch, so-called as quite a few of the ships servicing the 49'ers lost their deck cargo here, the deck cargo being - potatoes. Here also, we passed a small pod of porpoises, this was felt to be a good sign. Then we turned towards the Farallon Islands, at some point my IH came to the fore and I stood at the prow, at one with the Ocean and its vagaries, balancing deftly on the balls of my feet and allowing my supple knees to absorb the movement of the boat, my hands lightly gripping the rail, my nostrils flaring at the scent of the salt spray, my heroic profile raking the horizon with my hawkl......
"Can you move please we can't see."
"Oh ummm ... sorry."
We all raked for a bit but no whale showed a fluke, so we went to the islands instead, there were a lot of birds and a lot of sea-lions. some of the Sea-lions climbed up about fifty feet above the tide level, I'm still yet to find out how, unless they had been stranded during post-glacial melt. Suddenly, great excitement (GE) Mr North Face had spotted something, "Tufted Puffin!" There were two, they were quite cute.
A sad tale; originally this trip was to spot Blue Whales, which feed on Krill, a cold water shrimp, there ain't no krill as the water's too warm, but there are a lot of bait fish, hence Humpback Whales. The Puffin have failed to breed for the last few years as bait fish are too big for the chicks to swallow and consequently they starve to death, despite frantic attempts at force-feeding by Ma and Pa.
After a quick history lesson, and an aquatic mooch about, we left the Farallons and their bloody annoying Guano flies, and headed off into the Pacific to look for Whales. Several times porpoising sea-lions (I can't help it, that's what they call it, even penguins porpoise) caused a momentary hiatus, the porpoising looks like joi-de-vivre but is probably something more natural (as in red in tooth and claw, natural) like avoiding shark attack.
The we found two Humpbacks, both adult, about 40 foot plus, we watched them for a bit till GE reckoned that there was one breaching on the horizon, we skedaddled over, he was right (sadly). There were three more and the juvenile with them had obviously been at the tartrazine, he even breached twenty feet from the boat, I, of course, heard, "WOW!" splash.
We moseyed on looking for more, I was sat at the front when some big fins started to go past, "Hmm? there aren't supposed to be Orca here." I thought.
"Risso's Dolphin!" GE.
Rareish, squid eaters, no beak, lots of squid scars.
We started for home, bathed in cetecean glory.
"Rhinoceros Auklet!"
"Pink-Legged Shearwater!"
"BlueWhale!"
A minor sensation this, first one of the year etc. Margie agreed she'd seen something that wasn't a Humpback, it was at this point I asked Paul if she'd ever been Headgirl.
The journey back was somnolent, GE, resuming scanning the horizon when he discovered;
A. That Margie was married.
B. That her husband was on the trip.
C. That the couple of chicks next to him were just that, a couple.

As we re-approached the Golden Gate I wondered if the wish idea worked both ways, now what to wish for? "Sex" or "Sex in a meaningful relationship".

We harboured, and climbed back into the car, mindful of the need to re-hydrate after our lengthy time at sea (there was coffee on board, brewed by Den, but it wasn't very liquid) it was agreed to head for a suitable hostelry. Sadly the complex grid system of San Francisco proved too much for the driver so we ended up in the Half Moon Bay Inn. We decided to snack,
"Oysters please?"
"Run out, sorry."
"Artichokes?"
"Yup."
They arrived, deep fried and breaded, ho hum.
"Pint of Great White,please?"
Sound of dry pump.
"Run out....sorry."
"Fat Tire?"
"Yup."
It arrived, dark and malty, ho hum.


We went home a(Hi! I'm back! Now let's see... don't tell me. Salt, hint of guano, diesel, thrice brewed coffee and the merest trace of... hmmm...Dramamine. Add to that the overlay of adrenaline, fish, pinnipeds and cetecea. No - haven't a clue. Where you been?)nd ate a highly civilised meal, before a comparitively early night, due to my early morning flight. I slept, the bed didn't move(IH).


U(Bye, missing you already!")p. Then up and away via Philly. I was talked to on the way back - she liked my accent.