We were in the San Jose channel and there were a few blue whales around, but it was about time to start doing the morning talks and go inside, except we saw a blow that looked funny. When it fluked we decided to wait for it to come up again, but it took 20 minutes, and then we had a really good idea that it was not a humpback. When it came up we had some looks at it as it breathed a lot, something like 10-15 times, then it was down again, and the third surfacing we ended up reasonably close to it and I got this video. The sea state was kindy bumpy, but I'm on the ship, so its more smooth than in a skiff.
There is a cookie cutter shark bite in the tail, and I think a scar from entanglement in a net or fishing line, like a long line, on the right side fluke. I wonder if this whale was poaching fish from lines off southeast alaska at one time. I have heard they used to do that a lot.
Its also amazing, the wrinkles on the body. A beautiful animal.
One of our pastry chefs, Mira, asked me to take some photos of her desserts, so here they are! Hopefully she can find these and download them too. Click on them for higher resolution.
Sometimes it loads the pictures backwards... So in reverse!
We went to Cerralvo island, which is a cool spot that I've been a few times, but also I hear about really cool things there. I've not before noticed the big barrel cactus there, so that is a neat thing. They are similar to the barrel cactus on isla Santa Catalina, but not the same.
There are goats there, and some have left their feet behind...
Another shot of the barrel cactus. The biggest I saw was about 2 ft wide and 8 ft tall
At Los islotes, the sea lions were nice
And we did an exploration of the lagoon at Amortajada. It is very tidal dependent and only on nice high tides can you get in and out, but with the full moon we were able to do it.
I found this Brant's cormorant in breeding plumage and its fabulous
And a murrelet, which I think is a Craveli's murrelet
We also had some skiff tours with hundreds of common dolphin
This frigate was really bent weirdly. The wings are upside down.
Pelicans are, of course, wonderful and beautiful birds. They are big, heavy, and love to eat fish.
"An amazing thing is the pelican, his bill can hold more than his belly-can!"
They do cool plunge dives and reach out with their necks to scoop up fish and its very cool...
But when you are anchored in a harbor somewhere, and if you aren't careful, they will land on the bow of your boat and poop all over the deck.
Once you have a splattering of white paint on the deck, and the smell to go with it, the next one comes along and sees a bright billboard welcoming them. And so soon you have what is known as a "pelican boat". This is not a desirable thing. Everything corrodes from their poop, so the boat becomes broken much quicker, and it becomes very obvious that nobody is home.
If nobody is home, then people cruising by on small boats might decide to come aboard and see if there is anything to take. It looks like an abandoned boat, ripe for the plunder.
So, in order to leave my boat for a few weeks while working, I have decided to put up my pelican defenses. I use fishing line, strung along above the places they would like to land, about 6 inches up, and very tight.
Here is a picture of the solar panels with the lines strung along the outside edges. I'll take this down when I get back and I'm moving around. It blocks some of the light from the panels, so its less efficient, but since I'm not running a lot of electrical loads it isn't a problem.
I'm a little concerned that the pelicans will just land inside the fishing line area, since its a big flat space, but I think they won't like having the line there to hit their wings when they come in.
Also, they need a place to start, as in on the edge, and then get more comfortable. So hopefully this will prevent them. In the middle of the panels I have a flag flapping around, so I hope that persuades them to keep off the panels altogether.
The most tricky part of the boat is usually the bow. Many boats I see have pelicans that come in, coast along and perch on the bow railing (or pulpit) and look happily down into the water from the front of the boat. They have great visibility, and easy take-off spot, and usually they are standing on a round steel tube about 1" wide, so its good footing. I have seen them land on the cables that make up the life-lines too. In order to stop that, I've rigged up my fishing line about 6 inches up from the lifelines and the bow pulpit, and it is strung really tight (its braided fishing line-dyneema).
This extends back around the boat as well.
Then I have some swinging lines hanging down to keep them nervous if they try to land on deck.
At the masthead I have a spike that extends above my wind instruments, and it has been there for several years to good effect. (for frigatebirds)
So, why don't I use CDs or zip ties? Or a mop or rake? I've seen people use flashing tape or CDs as deterrents, and I think they only work for a little bit until the scare wears off. The birds may be initially afraid of the flashing, but after they fly by enough and discover that it doesn't do anything, they will land anyways, and once they poop, the invitation is more powerful than the scare. I've seen many boats with flashing things, and the birds ignore them easily.
Zip ties I think are an excellent idea, but done poorly, since they are not strong enough to be landed on and not bend out of the way. If they were spikes, the birds would not be able to land, but they can push the zip ties down and then its a solve-able problem for them. I've seen lots of boats with zip ties that didn't work.
So my philosophy is to start on all the areas that the birds would first land on, and make those impossible to land. And hopefully impossible despite a bird trying to land or pushing on the thing, or wind and boat rocking moving the deterrent. It has to be robust.
The second defense is to have somewhat scary things (like swinging ropes) that are nearby the areas they want to land, just to keep them nervous about trying. I could use shiny ribbons, but I also like to make it look like I am still at home, and a few swinging ropes seems to be about right.
So hopefully the pelicans will keep off my boat, and also hopefully the thieves will be unattracted as well.
