California Dreams Another time, I took advantage of an airline price war to hop on a plane real cheap to Los Angeles airport with a carry-on package consisting of a rolled-up (dry) inflatable kayak in a soft pack with pockets containing all survival gear and credit card to buy water and groceries. On arrival at LA, I saw the airport fence was near the ocean, snuck under the fence, huffed/puffed and inflated the kayak (9'), and paddled toward San Diego. Near sunset, I paddled ashore, bought groceries and filled my 2-gallon plastic jug with water, then returned to the beach for a good night's sleep. At dawn, I paddled through the surf out to sea and paddled steadily south to San Diego, following the barely-visible shoreline. You wouldn't believe how lively the sealife is out there!
Seals migrating with me in their midst. When they disappeared, there'd be a shark fin or two cruising by for dinner "on the fin" - one a Tiger shark with sun-burned and peeling floppy-top fin checking-out the funny-smelling plastic boat.
Biggest concern was with over-friendly seals barking excitedly at the stranger... wanting to put their sharp claws on the plastic boat .
No way did I want to make a 6 or 7 mile swim to shore if the kayak deflated...
It made me smile to see baby seals cuddled to mama's breast.
One made me laugh at its furious expression when mama seal suddenly disappeared from beneath it...
leaving baby floundering on the surface....
But in a minute mama seal reappeared with a nice fresh fish... and repositioned angry baby upon her breast while gulping down the still-flopping fish.
Again, all seals disappeared. I looked around for the usual shark fin...but instead saw a blood-chilling sight...a pod of four big, black-and-white Orca (killer whales) swimming sedately southwards, a few yards from the little kayak. The largest was easily a good 50' with 5' dorsal and side fins, and the two littlest were obviously the "babies" - each larger than the 9' kayak.
Nothing I could do if they were hungry - hopefully they had dined well upon the seal migration. (I've seen movies of killer whales launching themselves up out of the Arctic up onto an ice floe after an Eskimo hunter, methodically battering that ice to pieces for their dinner.)
I thought I was calmly holding the kayak paddles but when I looked down, the kayak was shaking badly. THAT, I thought, was the time to panic. Nothing happened then, or later when the same pod returned in the other direction, hours later.
I slept good that night after coming in on the surf and dragging the kayak above the tide line. A small campfire and full belly while stargazing.... ahh, paradise enow.
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