Travels in a Tin Can

cinnamon buns, I was having doubts. In the end my desire to not appear
'wimpy' won out and I declined the medicine. Such courage!
It was quite a big group who had braved the December cold and risen
early on this Sunday morning to adventure out to sea. There were about
twenty of us gathered round on the pier while the crew manoeuvred the boat
into its berth. Our guide for the trip, a biologist whose well-weathered face
suggested she had lived her life at sea (either that or she was 100 years old),
began by giving us an orientation session. This included a short description of
all the types of whales and those ones we might be lucky enough to see. Most
of the session however consisted of rules about boat behaviour (essentially
hold on to things when you are on deck), and advice about the procedure to
follow if you needed to be sick. Basically, do it at the rear of the boat to avoid
hitting yourself or others with shrapnel. Nice.
Once we were fully briefed we were allowed to board the boat and then
we spent the next three to four hours driving out across Monterey bay and into
the open sea, and then back again.
Pretty quickly we saw (and more to the point heard) dozens of
Californian sea lions, a good omen for the success of the trip? No, there are
always loads playing and lounging in the harbour. However, as we left the
harbour we soon ran into more wildlife. Dolphins - about 70 rizzos and 15
white-sided pacifics - swam in groups around our boat for quite a while. And
no, we did not know any other words for ‘dolphin’ than ‘dolphin’ before the trip
either. They were beautiful to watch, playing in our wake and daring us to
attempt to photograph them - not at all easy. Though not as hard as whales it
would turn out. Our driver kept turning the boat so we could all have chance to