Visit the kelpforest....

Shortly after Avalon's birthday last summer, I bought a Groupon deal for half-price for whale watching, and bought six, thinking it could be a birthday present and she could take a friend. And of course, I almost forgot about them. They expired at the end of January, and earlier in the month, there was stormy weather and after that, a huge swell. Sunday was sold out already when I called to make reservations, so we decided they could take a day off for something educational. ;) Instead of a friend, we took John's grandmother along, as she's never seen them off this coast.

We left out of Dana Wharf Sportfishing on the F/V Dana Pride - GGma was a little surprised we went so far south as she was expecting for us to go out of Long Beach. Well, we only saw small whales. Common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins, and sea lions of course. And tons of shearwaters, seabirds that don't usually come very close to the coast. But that was fine. The kids had never been out on a boat like this before or seen wild dolphins, so it was all good. It was a nice day for it, especially for January. John's grandma had a nice time too.

And I forgot the stupid card for the big camera, so I put it away and there's only crap phone photos. Which I couldn't remember where the stupid lens was so my fat finger is in the way half the time. >:p



Sea lions on the buoy outside Dana Point Harbor.

( blurry dolphins and fingers ahoy... )

Now I'm amused. Half-heartedly hoping Google will find me some images of vintage early 1900's swordfish harpoon boats for the big boss's presentation so I don't have to dig through dusty filing cabinets or do a lot of scanning. I'm getting the odd picture of Spike Spiegel and Jet Black from Cowboy Bebop - probably because of Spike's craft, the Swordfish. Coincidentally, the Bebop of the title itself is supposed to be a converted spacegoing fishing boat, which, working with commercial fisheries like I do, I always thought was intriguing - just how did that work?



phbbbt. I crack myself up. Probably not anyone else tho'.

Also, MARLIN ARE NOT SWORDFISH! STOP LABELING THEM AS SUCH! They're in different families, jeez!

And whale harpoons. Do not want.

Rainbow Harbor - Squid boat and "trees." Hey, I've sampled this one!

When we got a little closer there were black-crowned night herons perched on top of the "trees."

Hmm, may have brightened this too much...the original was pretty dark.

Well, boats here, but "ships" alliterates better...

Purse Seine slip
San Pedro CA
Canon EOS 1000D
28 June 2010

( this one IS a ship... )

After school a Friday or two ago, Angus announced he wanted to go see some sea lions - I'd mentioned I'd seen they were taking over the Fish Harbor dock in front of the Army Corp of Engineers trailers. I figured it would be a way to work in a few more waymarks as well.



War is chaos. This is the WWII Pacific Submarine Memorial West. Turbine end of a torpedo, a great causer of chaos. 

Torpedo
Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station
Seal Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
16 April 2010

( +8 )

26. chaos ☺
27. numbers ☺
25. calmness ☺

Painting in the library at work; fishing boats at the cannery.

28. Painting ♥

Heading for harbor
Pt. Fermin, looking towards Angel's Gate
San Pedro CA
Canon EOS 1000D
13 October 2009

( What has she got in her hold? )

While waiting for boats, I got to watch the Coast Guard helicopter doing an exercise with the LA County lifeguards, lowering and raising a basket from the heli to the small boat. They did this for about half an hour, with the aircraft leaving and flying in a circle, then rejoining the boat and lowering the basket again. I have a whole series of these that might make an animation if I can edit them properly.

Training exercise
Main Channel, LA Harbor
San Pedro CA
09 September 2009

Fog in Fish Harbor
Terminal Island CA
Sharp VE-CG30
7 May 2009

( +1 )

My dad went a little crazy and bought a boat. He's been thinking about a kayak for years, but at 83, a solid one is a little difficult to handle. Sea Eagle was having a sale, so he splurged and bought this. Sort of a cross between a kayak and and a Zodiac. We took it down to one of the little sandy beaches in Huntington Harbor, blew it up - it comes with a foot pump, but we cheated and used an electric inflater plugged into the minivan - and spent a couple of hours taking turns paddling around on it. I have absolutely no upper body strength and didn't want to overdo it, so I didn't go very far; thought I'd be really sore the next day and was surprised to find I wasn't. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera while we were at the harbor (we also forgot the paddles and runsamuck had to run home and get them), so I took these while we were rinsing the saltwater off after we got home.

435ps Paddleski
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
26 April 2009

( +1 )