SIGHTINGS the resourceful sailor's whale tales Whales are exotic to landlubbers, but if you spend any appreciable amount of time on a saltwater boat, you see whales and other marine wildlife frequently. The Resourceful Sailor and Sampaguita, a Pacific Seacraft Flicka 20, sailed down the West Coast of the contiguous US this past August and September, and it was humpback whales all day, every day. Whales are incredible animals, but the caveat is they can be a bit big. I measure humpback whales by comparing them to Sampaguita's size: oneSampaguita, one-and-a-half Sampaguita, and two-Sampaguita-and-upsized whales. The bigger, the more worry. In addition to being big, they do what and go where they want, regardless of any wishes I have for them to stay far away. It's not that I think they will attack my boat, but any random breach or tail flop coinciding with Sampaguita's position will end poorly. Let me highlight some whale encounters during this voyage. Sampaguita and I were off the Washington coast, headed south, with an easy NW following wind, sailing about three knots. The self-steering was at joshua wheeleR
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leslie RiChteR / www.RoCKsKiPPeR.CoM
Clockwise from top left: An orca and her calf in the Pacific Northwest; a humpback whale in Banderas Bay; a whale does a little fluking in Drake's Bay; another whale breaches near Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo; 2017 was a big year for whales on San Francisco Bay, illustrating the health of the population and ecosystem.
Page 42 • Latitude 38 • November, 2023
cleanup coming soon After a chaotic end of the summer in which the Oakland Estuary saw brazen, rampant theft from marinas and sailing centers, and police departments shrugging and reluctant to take action, a plan is now in place to step up law enforcement and clean up the strip of water between Oakland and Alameda. An early October meeting at Encinal Yacht Club in Alameda "highlighted a new degree of collaborative, on-the-water enforcement to address the problem of crime on the Estuary," wrote Brock de Lappe, the former Oakland harbormaster. "The timeline provided by [Oakland Police] indicated a complete removal of all illegal anchor-