Monterey

October 3-5

Finally the fall rains have come to California. We arrived in Santa Cruz’s little slit of a harbor during a downpour. Though the docks were all usable, signs of damage from last winter’s tsunami were everywhere. Plywood nailed over dock joints, boards securing the connections around pilings. There is a brand new dock and several more planned. We noticed the surge shuttling us back and forth in the slip all night but it was nothing like the rushing river from the tidal wave that sank a dozen boats.

Monterey, on the southern shore of the same bay, provided more excitement starting with hundreds of birds outside the harbor, including rhinoceros auklets that we haven’t seen in CA before. The splashes of sea lions attracted attention a mile out. We noticed many groups, some porpoising along as if migrating. In addition bigger splashes revealed a few pods of Risso’s dolphins also on the hunt. These 13 foot light grey dolphins have tall dorsal fins and whitewashed heads. New to us.

Monterey Bay has the most pristine ocean environment we’ve seen along the coast. Clearly the feeding was great for marine mammals. The long breakwater was crowded with sea lions, the stench of their breath driving us to hold our own breath. Kayak tours headed for the kelp beds along the beaches to observe the fast growing sea otter population. In the marina Charlie oooed as a mother otter swam by with her baby on her tummy. Very cute.

Monterey used to be the sardine capital of the country. Its front street, renamed Cannery Row after Steinbeck’s novel now would be corniest row. I’ve never seen so many tee shirts with hokey slogans. Business was slow. At least 4 restaurants gave us free chowder samples. Luckily we found the Tuesday night farmers’ market open and bought Brussels sprouts to go with our swordfish from the same pier as our marina.

The biggest draw of Monterey for us was the Aquarium. Getting there via a walking trail on the old railway bed, we stopped to watch the harbor seals posing on single rocks like granite sculptures on plinths. Also novel were white egrets standing on kelp mats to fish. One almost lost its life to a lunging sea lion! We spent pretty much the whole day looking at the exhibits and going to feedings and informative talks in the auditorium. The huge ocean tank has a great while shark and a mola mola or ocean sunfish as well as dozens of other fish including anchovy schools.