I SWAM WITH SEA LIONS! I SWAM WITH SEA LIONS!

Yes that's right. In case you can't guess from the title of this post, yesterday I happily swam and snorkled with wild sea lions!!! I took Gary's Dive Boat out to San Pedro Nolasco Island (usually simply referred to as San Pedro Island) with a number of scuba divers. There are numerous reknowned diving locations around this island for beginners to advanced divers, with depths ranging from 15 to 130 feet. It just so happens that the sea lions live there too. So any snorkel or scuba adventure anywhere near or around the island will more than likely include a sea lion encounter. I was the only one on board for whom the sea lions were the main attraction. For everyone else it was simply an added bonus to what is otherwise gorgeous marine scenery.

I awoke at 6:45am yesterday to the first overcast sky since we've been here. The morning winds were up more than usual as well. "Oh great," I thought. "Rougher waters for my first snorkel boat trip in five years." I will admit to being particularly anxious about the motion sickness aspect of the trip. The last time I took a snorkel boat out into the ocean was five years ago in Key Largo, Florida. On that particular trip, I did fine on the ride out to sea, but once we were anchored, the increased rocking of the stationary boat made me quite ill. I got sick - very sick (as did about 1/3 of the people on the boat) - and even got sick while snorkeling IN the water and watching the tropical fish surface to feed on my output. !!!

For this morning's trip, I'd been taking ginger three times daily since Thursday. I had my seabands on my wrists. I decided to take a Bonine tablet - half the recommended dose - before leaving the house. True, antihistamine is Bonine's main ingredient. I have a history of not tolerating antihistamine and haven't taken any in decades. But Bonine promised a "less drowsy" antidote, and I figured at this point I was anxious enough about being seasick that I needed to calm down about it, so that my anxiety didn't become a self fulfilling prophecy.


The drive down to the marina to meet Gary's Dive Boat is less than five minutes. There I met several scuba divers, and the two scuba instructors - Russ & Johann - from Gary's Dive Shop. A lady named Cindy, who is about my age, was completing her final dive for certification this morning. Since I am contemplating certifying, it was nice to talk with her about her experience. The boat was about fifteen minutes late in leaving, due to the crew having forgotten some equipment back at the shop. This gave me a chance to sit on a stationary boat for those fifteen minutes, and relax about getting seasick.


Then we were off. The boat sound system piped jovial Jimmy Buffett tunes and lively Mexican Mariachi songs, givng the ride a celebratory feel. The CD player was not happy about the bouncing ride though, and skipped frequently. "Wasting away again in Margaree -ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-taville." Haha. Yet somehow it was perfect, providing a sound track to the seagulls, pelicans and other birdlife that soared by.

It is an hour long boat ride to San Pedro Island. Johann spotted a pod of about 20 dolphins halfway there. The young boat driver trainee (who appeared to be about 14 years old) turned and tried to create the boat wake dolphins love to swim in, but was a bit too inexperienced as a driver to manage the maneuver.

I immediately found Johann a very funny and entertaining personality and his voice and mannerisms seemed somehow familiar. He had an accent but not a German one as his name may indicate. I couldn't place it and his antics and humor reminded me of a celebrity... finally it came to me. His inflections, accent and humor reminded me of the Scottish late night talke show host Craig Ferguson. I'm a big Craig Ferguson fan. Once I figured this out, Johann made me laugh even more. It turns out he is Dutch and has lived in Canada. This combination has somehow given his accent a Scottish spin.

I was the only "non-scuba" person on the boat. Everyone was friendly and jovial. I went up to the top level to take a few scenic photos. Coffee, soft drinks and water were complimentary.


The water got rougher the further out we got. The back of the boat is open - as are most dive boats - and one of the oxygen tanks went rolling overboard. We stopped and searched for a few minutes but never did find it. It belonged to a fellow named Eric. He seemed rather blase about it. The Dive Shop will compensate. I'm guessing the owner won't be too happy but what can you do. The boat keeps an extra set of full scuba gear on board, so they were able to loan Eric the equipment to dive, while Russ remained on the boat for the entire trip.


As we pulled into the location for the first dive around San Pedro Island, I became just a little apprehensive - although not too bad. If I was going to get seasick, it would be now, when putting down anchor. But I was fine!

San Pedro Island is a fairly large island, It is uninhabited and uninhabitable for humans due to terrain. Sea lions are the main critter that live hear. Russ did the "site briefing", that is, informing everyone of what to expect in this particular dive spot, the sights to see as well as the cautions to take. Then we all entered the water.

The water temperature read 64 degrees. That's not particularly warm, and according to the locals, colder than usual for this time of year. I entered the water. It took a few minutes to get my stiff ankles into kicking mode in my fins. All manner of tropical fish were instantly in view. I saw some sort of pink starfish that has way more than five legs. It looked like it was made of tiny pink beads. I saw another starfish that was gold in color and looked like it was covered with tiny spikes. I later learned this is called a "Crown of Thorns" and changes color if you touch it. Kind of like a Mood Ring I guess!!! haha But I don't know much about sea life so I'm not inclined to touch anything.

After only five minutes in the water I began thinking that any future snorkeling adventures on my part would wait until April when the water is warmer. Just then, about three feet in front of me, a female sea lion zipped by. Suddenly I was no longer cold. I was excited.

I knew it was female by her size and color. Females are brown with white on their chests. Males are black. As part of our site brieifng, we were told not to swim too close to shore initially. The protocol is to allow the sea lions to determine that we are "the humans" and not one of them. Since most wet suits are black, the males need to figure out that we are not one of them and therefore not a threat. Once they determine this, they swim out to us. At that point it is considered safe to swim in closer and explore the rock walled shoreline and associated sea life, usually accompanied by frisky, playful, acrobatic females. Once in awhile a male gets a bit testy anyway. If a male appears irritated, a simple backing off from the territory usually appeases him. According to Russ, there has been zero incident of any attacks.

For the next hour, this one particular female swam around me a lot. She twisted and turned and I occasionally tried to imitate her graceful yet comically movements. I think this must have intrigued her as she chose to hang around me for most of the next hour. She moved at lightning speed. I'd quickly loose sight of her as her color would camoflauge her even just a few feet out of view. This would enable her to surprise me by suddenly showing up two inches from my face, making me laugh out loud under water. Sometimes I would catch site of her about 10 feet below me. She would swim directly up towards me, eventurally putting her face next to mine, and then dart on by. They are so fast, much more so than dolphins, at least at short range. They are more sprinters than dolphins. Dolphins need to be able to make long sea journeys and have stamina, but the sea lion needs quick short bursts. Even though the scuba divers knew the sea lions were there, there was always the surprise factor when they'd be looking at some sea life and suddenly have this clown critter right in your face. It is very much laughter producing!!!


I noticed some of the divers returning to the boat, ending the first of two dives. I started to head back, but Miss Sea Lion showed up for a couple of more appearances so I stayed in a bit longer. Eventually I returned to the boat, and my frisky female friend to the rocks.

I began to get cold. If the sun had been out, I would have been OK. It was lunchtime and the crew of three had cooked up fish tacos and bean quesedillas in the teeny tiny kitchen on board. They tasted good. I ate a lot.

I was having a bit of trouble back on board the boat, so I decided to take the second half of the Bonine dose. I was not sleepy so I thought it would be OK. Within the next half hour I felt the anithistamine drowsiness start to come on. But I was not seasick. So when we arrived at the second dive location, between the drowsiness and being cold, I began to consider passing on the second dive. I'm not usually cold natured. I was informed by the scuba staff that my wetsuit was thinner than most, and that snorkeling requires more oxygen use than scuba and they were not surprised that I was cold. They also said they were surprised that I'd remained in the water for a full hour, given the temperature.

Just as I was debating whether or not to go back into the water, it was determined that the second dive site was loaded with tiny jellyfish that were to be avoided. Most of the divers were going to do something called a "dead drop" (I think that's what it was called) and get out of jellyfish territory in a hurry. As a snorkler, I would have to keep my neck and hands out of water for 10-20 feet until I swam free of their territory. Everyone was instructed to NOT lift up their masks until out of the jellyfish area, because if you got even a little water in you mask, there was a chance of a jellyfish being there. A sting to the eye would not be a happy thing. That cynched it for me. I was passing on dive number two.

I stayed on board the rocking boat, yawning a lot but not at all sick. I had a nice conversation with Russ who told me all about the area, deserted beaches with wonderful seashells, and other dive sites.


After awhile the divers returned. Some of them had found a small cave to explore, and were amused to find several sea lions hanging upside down at the cave entrance, watching them.

The happy music cranked up for the ride back to San Carlos. "Wasting away ag eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-ain in Margaritaville. I was sleepy but happy. I wasn't seasick and I'd played with a sea lion - or rather - she had played with me!

Once home, the grogginess really hit me. With the exception of getting up a couple of times to feed Frances, and to grab a bite for myself, I slept from 4:30 in the afternoon until 7:00 this morning, with antihistamine nightmares in the bargain. I will have to find another way to cope with motion sickness, but maybe, just maybe, I can begin to conquer this problem on my own. I'm still a little shaky with a drug hangover this morning.

Betsy stayed up until 2am engrossed in the autobigraphy of writer William Styron (the man who wrote Sophie's Choice amoungst other novels). So we are both going to take this day to kick back, clean house, do laundry and go out to dinner tonight.

Well it's nearly noon and I'm finally beginning to feel free of the antihistamine affects. 24 hours is just too long to get over a drug.