Close Encounters

There is something magical--even sacred--about the contact between humans and great animals of other species in the wild. It's hard to define, but I am always thrilled, and come away somehow enriched by the experience, as though I had learned something intangible from these different, and in some ways wiser beings. It happens even, as it did yesterday, with a crowd of other tourists on a commercial boat... We went whale watching, and did not see whales. But we did see three different species of dolphin in great numbers, and the thrill was almost the same.

First, though, a necessary stop for a bite to eat along the marina at Dana Point. Georgia opted for a bagel with cream cheese...

Sarah and Ed were along for the ride.

It was, in fact, Sarah's suggestion that started us out on this trip. And Ed, a short while into the tour, lost his prescription glasses to the waves as he stood on the forward deck. The breakwater, on the way out from the harbor, was lined with hundreds, well actually thousands of sea birds, including, to my surprise, a few blue herons...

(Don't look. You can't see them here.) Ellie was ready, in full nautical gear...

... as was I myself, out on the foredeck, with a weather eye for whales...

No whales, as I said, but dolphins by the dozens, dolphins by the hundreds, great pods of them, intent on their prey and leaping from the water as though exclusively for our entertainment. Hard to get the full impression in these pictures, because of the slight delay between the amazing sight of a dozen or more of them, leaping in coordinated choreography, the pressure of the finger on the camera's trigger and the reaction of the camera's electronic lens. So this is a selection of the best that Ellie and I could manage...

The captain offered explanations and commentary from his roost on the bridge...

... turns out he, too, was a Peter, as was his first mate. Three of us on the boat. Here's Matthew, scanning the horizon...

... and Diane and the twins...

And of course, more dolphins...

Toward the end of the cruise, the wind came up and it grew quite cold and dark...

It seemed almost that a storm was threatening as we returned to Dana Point...

... passing this lazy bunch of sea lions basking on a buoy...

... and more birds, on the breakwater...

We returned too late for our reservation at Banderas, up the coast, and stopped instead on the way home for a less fancy dinner at Ruby's.

And so to bed.