06/17/2009, Elkhorn Slough/Moss Landing
The sun peeked out a bit and warmed up on Sunday to make a beach walk enjoyable. We saw the raft (group) of about 26 sea otters across from the Yacht Club! It's thrilling to see so many of a species which has neared extinction in California (there are about 2,750 although the population could have been in the hundreds of thousands in the early 1900s). The resident harbor seals that hang out on the sand bar are nice and cute and VERY quiet when compared to the sea lions!
We hung out at the Elkhorn YC, the kids watched a little bit of cable TV (!) and started a marathon Monopoly game with their new friend Logan who lives on a boat. Somehow, we wound up at the bar (again) and met Brian, who's the skipper of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) 117 foot small water-plane area twin hull (SWATH) vessel (aka motor catamaran) that launches remotely operated vehicles (submersibles). He offered a tour of the boat on Monday, so what were we to do but to stay another day!
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06/17/2009, Monterey
The crab net came up a large decorator crab (they're covered in a Velcro-like substance that they stick rocks, shells, kelp, etc. too) as well as a nice collection of bat stars. We saw a raft of otters as well as sea lions and harbor seals.
We also talked about the Great Pacific Garbage patch (comprised of the Eastern and Western Pacific Garbage patches in the pacific gyre) which is small pieces of plastic strewn across an area twice the size of Texas ( http://science.howstuffworks.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch.htm ). The real beast is that the plastic becomes even smaller as it photo degrades and sea animals consume the plastic. I can see why the UN Environment minister is seeking to ban plastic bags worldwide as a starting point to addressing this. Interestingly, there's a group that's just started a research expedition to test the feasibility of treating the plastic and converting it into diesel (www.projectkaisei.org). Lots of food for thought.
We caught a $40 15-minute taxi ride back to Moss Landing (we preferred to think of it as an incremental $17 taxi ride- it would have cost us $23 and about 2 hrs to take a bus from Monterey to Moss Landing via Salinas-it sure is hard to provide mass transit in rural areas). Of course, there happened to be ANOTHER party at the Elkhorn Yacht Club that we "commuted" to by dinghy- Stef was celebrating is 60th birthday. We were, of course, made to feel welcome to that event too!
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06/17/2009, Monterey
We caught a ride with our dock neighbor Scott to Monterey and boarded the Derek M Baylis with about 15 other passengers. It's a great platform with a large transom/cockpit area as well as a comfy down-below area that is suitable for the overnight trips required of the aquarium's great white shark tagging program out at the Farallones. The staff led interesting activities such as dragging a plankton net to capture the brown/purple soup and dropping a baited crab net at the beginning of the trip. There's a microscope projected on a screen in the main salon to see microorganisms such as algae and copepods.
Photo courtesy of Sealife Conservation
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06/16/2009, Elkhorn Slough
After 2 nights, we moved from the yacht club guest dock south about ½ mile to the marina of the Moss Landing Harbor District to make room for other guests. From the marina, we could easily walk to the fruit and veggie market (Whole Enchilada) and bought tasty tri tip and yummy bread at the deli next door. We also enjoyed our "commute" to the yacht club for happy hour on Friday night which allowed us to see more of the wildlife, including the sea lions that have taken over the public dock, on the way. Ironically, Friday night was also when the yacht club was rented for a wedding - it was a Mexican wedding complete with an accordion in the polka band! We travelled 5,000 miles back to CA to experience a Mexican wedding!
We extended our stay in the Monterey area because of the opportunity to sail on the Derek M. Baylis, a Tom Wylie designed 65 foot sailing yacht that is run by the non-profit Sealife Conservation (http://www.sealifeconservation.org/NewApproach.html) and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
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05/26/2009, Elkhorn Slough and Moss Landing
We took the opportunity in Monterey to attend a Tuesday farmer's market for dinner, then took another dinghy ride on Wed morning before setting sail for Moss Landing and Elkhorn Slough, 12 miles away. We arrived in the late afternoon with a strong westerly blowing us into the channel entrance on some largish ocean swell. It's a little unnerving to see waves breaking on the breakwater, but there are range markers and good aids to navigation to make the entrance. We were able to stay on the guest dock of the Elkhorn Yacht Club for two nights and enjoyed the abundant hospitality of the club and its members - we've had a hard time leaving!
Elkhorn Slough is known for its abundant wildlife including large populations of sea lions, harbor seals, and sea otters. We quickly launched the dinghy and took a ride up the slough - it was windy and cold but worth the effort because of the delightful otters (some moms and pups) that we saw. My short telephoto couldn't come close to doing the scene justice - but here are a few tries. I highly recommend coming to rent a kayak to see the wildlife - it's truly a special place!
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05/26/2009, Monterey
Finally we got back to the big boat. We heard some one splashing. We turned around and there was a big sea lion that had a fish in its mouth. It was swinging the fish to bite it open. All the birds came, and this is what they said, "Hey you gotta share ya know buddy." Near the end of the show, a pelican came. When the sea lion saw the pelican he slapped the water very hard. The pelican didn't even care if he got wet. He badly wanted that fish. Then the pelican called all the seagulls and said, "Come on guys, let's show this sea lion that we can grab his fish." And before you know it fish was gone. The sea lion had eaten it all up!!!
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