Sea Lions and Sunshine

This was the hit of full-on West Coast we needed to blast us out of winter and fully into spring. Barely out of our jammies, we sleepily loaded the truck with our kayaks - first trip of the year - and drove the 5 minute trip to Ford's Cove. It took us all of 10 minutes to pack our three bags with snacks, tea and extra fleece into our hatches. Another few minutes later we launched and paddled out of the marina and into sea lion heaven.

We quietly paddled past a few big sea lions languishing belly-up with flippers flapping in the breeze. As soon as they saw us they rolled onto their sides and slipped out of sight under the water. As we got closer to Norris Rocks, the pods of sea lions got thicker, more vocal and downright slap happy. Initially they barked and hesitated to come very close, but within an hour or so they were circling our boats, doing bubbly underwater swim-bys and then in-your-face meet 'n greets.


These are very .... very.... large animals. When they roar, they look like grizzly bears. To have a gang of them surround your teeny kayak in jubilant herring eating frenzies took a little getting used to! The young sea lions play willingly with divers, but the big guys usually avoid them. Today we had great big adult males cozy up and check us out...

By the end of the day we were kayaking along side them gliding in and out of the surface of the water, occasionally emerging with a fish to chomp on. One daring sea gull actually tried to get the fish from the mouth of one of these cridders. At one point, the sky filled with multiple types of sea gulls together with at least a dozen eagles who took turns cruised the surface of the water dipping in their big yellow talons to liberate fish for themselves. It was an absolute spectacle of marine feasting. Worth waiting through months of rain.