For a long time I had wanted to get out to the Farallon Islands, a small group of islands off the coast of San Francisco. Today was the day, we loaded up on the Kit Kat, a whale watching / commercial fishing boat out of Fort Mason. We set out at 8:00 and headed into rather dense fog. The boat was loaded with other BASK members and was organized by Maryly who wasn’t able to go because of sickness. After passing under the Golden Gate Bridge we turned north around Point Bonita and cruised up to Tennessee Valley where we changed course and headed due west to the Farallon Islands. The visibility was only a couple of hundred feet and it was hard to tell where the horizon was. The Kit Kat labored into the oncoming swell. About four miles from the Farallons, there was a large bang from the port engine. Opening the hatch, black smoke belched from the compartment. While there was no fire we did loose the engine for the remainder of the trip.
Suddenly out of the fog we could make out two ships that were science vessels studying the great white sharks. We hung out for awhile trying to repair the engine. Cruising around the island we found another boat trying to scare up sharks using a dummy sea lion.
No sharks, no whales, and down an engine we decided to head home. The sun finally punched through and with everyone warm and sandwiches in our stomachs it was time to nap. Suddenly, someone yelled “whale ho!” and everyone ran to one side of the boat. Sure enough a couple of hump back whales were playing at the surface. We later found another group of whales playing nearby. I had seen whales close up several times kayaking but this was the first time I actually saw one breach.
On the way back to harbor the Bay was a hub of activity with the Maltese Falcon racing to and fro, container ships coming and kite surfers chasing everyone.
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