November 11, 2006
Today we’re headed for Catalina Island. We had Sunday brunch at the yacht club, and set off. About half an hour after we headed out, a little bird streaked over and landed on the boat. We were a ways off shore, though still in sight of land, and we wondered why such a small bird would land on a moving boat. It was really cute and fuzzy, and we decided to name him Sailor. At one point, Sailor flew off, and we thought he was gone, but he came back and landed really close to us under the dodger. I think he must have been cold, because when I was standing in the companionway, he hopped over as if he wanted to go inside. He came so close that he touched my arm! We sort of hoped that he would stay with us and become a pet, but he flew off as we were nearing our destination of Avalon Harbor. I was sad that he had to go, but I really enjoyed watching him.
Sailor was really cute.
We’re finally coming to San Diego tonight, and it seems like we’re being escorted. A bit after we lost sight of land, a prehistoric-looking bird came over to investigate the boat. It circled us about six times, then, on the second try, landed on our radar! It started to preen itself, and stayed for most of the day. A while later, as we were watching the strange bird Mom saw some disturbances on the water in the distance, like a bunch of little splashes. As we came closer, we saw the cause: dolphins, leaping out of the water! (I was pretty sure that they were White-sided Dolphins, but they could have been skinny porpoises or something.) There must have been hundreds of them, and a couple came over and started playing by our bow! It was so cool to watch them jump beside the boat, and I loved being able to see them while they were underwater. Sometimes other dolphins would join us, and at one point there were probably six of them. Even after we could see the pod no more, our little (not really) bird friend was still with us. I climbed up by the radar pole, and Dad took some pictures of Birdie and me. I got so close that I touched one of his tail feathers, but he got sort of mad at me for invading “his territory”. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted it to be my territory; there were bird droppings all over (no thanks to him). We didn’t want splat all over everything, so a while later Dad pushed him off with the boat hook, and he flew away.
Looking at this picture, you’re probably thinking, “He got sort of angry?! He looks like he’s about to peck your head off!” Hey, I had no idea what was going on until I saw this photo.