CHANGES With reports this month from Salt on their many encounters with sea life; Manatee exploring the dichotomy of cruising; Angel Louise's two 'victory laps' around Europe and North America; some thoughtful observations on the cruising life from Carthago; and Cruise Notes. Sure enough, what looked like the front half of another large shark was floating on its side just a few feet below the surface of the water. We approached slowly — and it moved. It was alive! Although we'd read about sunfish, it was our first encounter with this strange creature (also known as a mola). It was a damn big fish, but as further reading revealed, the one we saw was nowhere near the largest ever documented. That fish weighed some 3,500 pounds, about twice the weight of an average horse! Farther down the coast (this all occurred on the same day) we saw what, from a distance, looked like a bunch of dolphins leaping out of the water. As we got closer, we could see it was a group of leaping sea lions, presumably in pursuit of dinner. I'd never seen sea lions skip above the water like that in unison. (Since then, we have noticed lone sea lions often joining small groups of dolphins, leaping out of the water as if they With just their sealife sightings so far, Nick and were a part of the pod. Not sure if this is a Allison Edwards of 'Salt' could host a few epicase of identity crisis or a clever hunting sodes of 'Animal Planet'. technique.) The encounters got even better when we amazing sails. This was, of course, part of the appeal of going cruising, and as such, left Santa Cruz the next day. As we sailed something we expected. What we didn't south in a gentle breeze, Allison's keen eyes expect is how much encounters with sea caught the telltale spouts on the horizon: more humpbacks. As we approached, we life have captured our hearts. It began shortly after leaving Half Moon started counting: three . . . six . . . eight Bay on our way to Santa Cruz last Septem- . . . fifteen whales in all. We had seen whales before, but never ber. We saw a pod of humpbacks marked by a flock of birds circling overhead. Then, this many at one time. As we approached, a few hundred meters from the whales, they seemed to sense us and started to we spotted a great white shark! At first play and show off. Several even breached, I thought it was a buoy marking a crab rocketing their huge bodies two thirds of the way out of the water trap, but when the buoy 'Salt' finishing the Baja Ha-Ha. before crashing back (no turned and did a slow small feat; a fully grown circle, I saw it was a fin. humpback can weigh up Allison saw the full, to 75,000 pounds). huge girth of the shark, It was awe-inspiring seemingly a third as and, admittedly a little round as it was long nerve-wracking as Allison and only 25 feet off our and I nervously joked beam. Its indifference to about the YouTube video our passing reminded we saw a few years ago me of the lions in Botof a whale accidentally swana, who know they breaching onto a sailboat. rule the plains. When we finally parted Thirty minutes after company, I headed down our shark sighting, Albelow to troubleshoot lison saw "something an issue with our VHF dead" floating near the — when Allison let out a surface. We jibed around yelp and exclaimed, "Nick, to take a closer look. PILIALOHA
SALT
Salt — Beneteau 393 Nick and Allison Edwards Scratching the Surface Sausalito In our first few months after departing the Bay Area on the Big Cruise, we've met some incredible people and had many
they're here, they're right here!" I popped my head up the companionway and saw the massive backs of two humpbacks less than a boatlength off our stern seemingly headed straight toward us. One thing I never fully appreciated is the noise they make when they come up for breath. It's a 'trumpet' sound, kind of like what you'd expect a giant elephant to make. I fired up the diesel, but left it in neutral. We didn't intend to flee, but had heard that whales sometimes can't 'see' sailboats ghosting along, so the engine noise was sort of a courtesy to our visitors to let them know we were there. (We plan to research the validity of this theory.) Shortly after this intense and amazing sighting, we were in for yet another treat. We spotted large fins cutting through the water off our bow. Orcas? Doesn't quite look right. Dolphins? Way too big. Well, turns out they were dolphins — Risso's dolphins (thanks, Google). Also known as Monk dolphins, they range from 10 to about 13 feet and have rounded
