My Girl Motley

Nineteen-and-a-half . . . .

Identity Issues

That sharp sweeping black
fin and that shiny solid black
back moving through the water:
porpoise sighting from kayak-
back a mile-and-a-half-and-change
out in Half Moon Bay.

The porpoise wasn't surging
with that sinuous
up-and-down
mojo that I'm used
to viewing -- to feeling --
so I wondered if
I'd observed a faulty
identification.

Motions and emotions,
shall we say, mixed.

I'm a diver, you know,
neoprene-blubbered,
rubber-finned and masked,
and -- yet -- I didn't bother
to dip in, didn't slip free,
but kept to the yellow
deck of my kayak,
tasking myself with ill humor.
Swimming with any marine
mammal is awfully
awesome, but a shiny
black back cutting
through the salt
could be a great
white joke.

--MD




P.S.  My kayak-partner JP reports that there'd been a caution posted for kayakers (that we missed before heading out) that a 12-foot GWS had been sighted the last few days roaming the area just off Pillar Point Harbor, so that may not have been a porpoise, actually, after all.

Sea Nettles -- From the Kayak

Kayak Fisherman

Half Moon Bay.

Probably my favorite shot of the day.

"Whirl is King" -- Aristophanes

Kayak Fishing: Mendocino

Good trip, JP.

Jellyfish -- From The Kayak

Kayaking Mendocino: Four Shots

(Sorry about the waterspots.  I need to figure out how to get the water off the lens better.  Maybe keep a small spray bottle of fresh water handy for the amphib camera.  I think that the waterspots are part of the experience and that the photos work, but that may not work for everyone.)

This last photo shows a tricky spot a bit to the south of Van Damme State Beach. If you go through this narrow archway, you find a cathedral-like cavern open to the sky, The trick is that there's a mass of kelp growing in the center of that archway passage that will slow your kayak to a crawl. (I vividly recall past experiences digging, digging, digging with the paddle to get through and out.) This day, the swell was working, and I couldn't tell how much clearance I was going to have at the top of the swell's rising, and I did not want to get spiked; also, the tide was rather low at this time, which may have meant more headroom, but which also meant at the surge's drop the kayak would be in a too narrow space that wouldn't matter with a higher tide or with a mellower surge.

I looked, shot, and paddled on. Another day for entry. See, I am maturing (finally).

Ted Eames' "Shoreline Meeting"

SHORELINE MEETING

Wet cat ?

How wild ?

Slinking as if stalking.

Your eye looks back at mine,

and that is no eye of cat

in your gleaming head.

Only drowned cats are that drench-wet.

You proclaim otter

as you wriggle the rocks

to confound my stare.

You are sodden clay,

glistening from slapped water,

fur-lines chiselled in mud-furrows.

For a moment you are more solid that wild cat,

then you are not drowning in sea-rings,

a liquorice spine among floating weed.

Truth in the corner of my eye

has flickered by before,

but such a direct gaze

drives me from the shore.

This look from other

grants me thrilling fear.

--Ted Eames

from his book of poetry

Between Me and You

Published by Cairn Time Press

73 Pyms Road

Wem, Shropshire, SY4 5UU

www.maintenantman.wordpress.com

Quick Dip: Four Shots

The last two shots are not quite in focus, but they capture the actual visual experience of the dive rather well.  Slightly murky water with dark skies overhead kept me squinting, attempting to see better and more.  Cold, cold water too . . . though I was wearing a 4/3 surfing wetsuit, not fully zipped, and shouldn't complain.  Proper gear makes for longer dives . . . .  I need to find that good 6/5 surfing wetsuit, I guess.

Larger context:
Yesterday, I slipped off the kayak into the water off Mendocino for a short free dive.  I intended to play with (and shoot photos inside) a surge channel between a rock and a small island off Van Damme State Beach, but the surging of the swell circling around the island and then being squeezed into that channel shot me out precipitously.  After the such second cannon blast, I moved into quieter waters just to the side of the surge channel and took a few shots there.  I've often swam into such channels -- there's a great one on the east point of Lovers Point in Pacific Grove, for example -- but this particular one had a combination of seeming innocuousness and irresistible force that I will be back to try again.  Often, I've found the largest sea anemones in such channels.

Kayak Fisherman: JP

The Drifter, catching a rockfish.

I had a good time, Jeff.  Thanks.