We were still looking for summer as we headed South. Frances had read accounts of people's experience when they rounded Point Conception and how the change in weather was exceptional - temperature increases around the 12oC mark almost instantaneously. Difficult to believe, however it was true. Unbelievable - one minute we were in in 3 layers of clothing and the next we were in shorts and t-shirts. You could have knocked me down with a feather. Mind you the next day the fog rolled in again thick as ever but would over the next few days become only a memory. I checked back though the ship's log and confirmed that it had now been over 100 days since we have seen rain. Most of the time the dry climate along the coast wasn't obvious to us probably because the of the moisture laden fog ,however as the fog dissipated the dryness of the country became apparent.

We spent a few days hanging around the Channel Islands - San Miguel, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz. On San Miguel we were lucky enough to be escorted along a track by an Island Fox, being only slightly larger than a domestic cat. We read that, in recent years, the foxes were dying out and so the entire population of two islands (a total of 30 animals) were taken into captivity and a breeding program was instigated. Scientists discovered that the fox population was being decimated due to predation by Golden Eagles. Why this balance had changed I don't know, nor can I say how the balance was re-established, but eventually the foxes bred up and were released back into the wild. The seal was sound asleep on the beach as we crept past - on the way back she was basking with her back to us in the shallows still unaware of our presence.