San Simeon

June and I were hosted by Carolyn Skinder, fed by her and another employee, Brittany, and a sweet couple, George and Marge. Marge volunteers at the Monterey Marine Sanctuary outpost in San Simeon, where I managed to avoid ensnarement in kelp and have a nice landing in the very protected cove. It's a beautiful place to visit, and there's the Hearst Castle of in the distance and an elephant seal or two hanging about. Unfortunately I didn't get to see anything hanging out on the beaches since I was too busy avoiding kelp.I paddled past the most beautiful stretch of coastline yesterday leaving the Limekiln Campground on my way to San Simeon. As if the scenery weren't enough, a pilot whale swam by followed by some dolphins. It was a magical moment and one I hoped to record on my new video camera, except I neglected to change out the video card! I guess this just means I'll have to come back and paddle around this stretch again with the family. I think there's going to be a lot of coming back to this absolutely wild and beautiful coast. The Big Sur totally blows me away-and almost literally, too! The wind picked up in the afternoon and totally pushed me here. The section right past the topless lighthouse (the light was lost during a storm/earthquake combo or something) to San Simeon is unusually  flat for the Pacific. Maybe because of the shallowness, but despite the strong wind the swells stayed pretty small, the  way I remember it on the poor ailing Gulf of Mexico.Speaking of the Gulf of Mexico, i keep thinking of Jack Rudloe at the Gulf Marine Specimen Lab and all the others I met out there, including Aaron Viles and the good folks at the Gulf Restoration Network. As if they didn't have their hands full before the disaster down there! Now one of their chief battles is getting the information out-they are seriously screwed down there. I'm sorry, but it's going to take a heck of a lot more than President Obama jumping into the water for me to believe everything is "a-okay" down there. That place is going to need decades to recover, of it ever really does. Jack just recently wrote a book about the shrimpers. He and has wife have written several books about the region and the people there. In one of his emails he mentioned how crabs were behaving bizzarly- there was a mass exodus of them out of the water, something he's never seen before, despite oil disasters in the past. Who knows what those dispersants are actually doing to everything in the water down there. It's not like anyone is really forthcoming with the facts! Hopefully the independent scientists can shed some lift on things, because I'm afraid our President, for all his talk prior to the election, has been bought and sold like so many politicians before him. People need to remind their politicians that while the big companies have the money, we have the votes! Let's hope that the new Ocean Policy doesn't give everything away to industry and provide nothing for the people. Healthy natural resources can keep you alive for a long, long time bit are useless to everyone if they are ruined. Just ask the folks in the Gulf!