[CINC] 6/7/08 Speed Twin plus video link to news story

[Scott Cuzzo]

Greetings naturalists,

One 3 p.m. whale trip found two friendly humpies amidst large swells.


 ><=======;>

(That's my copyrighted whale illustration.  You can use it, but I get  
a quarter every time.)


The noon trip was cancelled last minute due the "Big Dog" parade  
(sponsored by SB's Big Dog company) on the street outside the pier  
entrance.  There were dogs everywhere.  Dogs in dresses.  Dogs in  
clown suits.  Tiny dogs on wagons.  And a entire human family dressed  
like dalmations to match their...wait for it...dalmation.  Lots of  
streets were blocked off and parking was hard to find, and you  
couldn't drive to the pier.  After searching for a parking spot that  
opened up, I walked a good distance to the end of the pier only to  
find the noon trip wasn't going because no one could get to the  
pier.  The Speed Twin made a few half hour harbor loops.  I was on  
board, 'cause their wasn't nuttin else to do.  I talked to  
passengers, trying to convince them to go for the 3 p.m. whale trip.   
I converted at least six passengers into whale watchers!  I'd like to  
think my enthusiasm was contagious, sort of like that bad rash that  
won't go away.

It was fun to see my converts return for the 3 p.m. whale trip.  The  
swells were quite large this day and we did have about 15% of our 30  
passengers ill.  We went and found two friendly humpies about 4 miles  
off shore.  One of the whales was "Mittens" with the all white pecs.   
Both whales came up to our boat numerous times.  It's cool to see  
Mittens near the boat with his big glowing white fins swishing thru  
the water.  (Brief aside: If you haven't gotten a good pair of  
POLARIZED sunglasses, I recommend them highly for seeing much better  
thru the water! I can often see whales surfacing before other, so you  
can have everyone looking at the right place, on time.)  Everyone who  
didn't have their face buried in a bag got to see, hear and smell the  
whales.  It was a very good encounter.  I saw spouts way off in the  
distance, but only saw these two whales this time.  No dolphins, but  
lots of sea lions.

SB's Channel 12 posted the news story they ran this week online with  
video shot from my trip Friday, a week ago.  There are great shots of  
Chewy's tail.  And you can see how she throws her tail straight up to  
90 degrees too in the final shot.  You can also see Rope's trademark  
scar a few times.  Fortunately my interview ended up on the cutting  
room floor.

See video here:

http://www.kcoy.com/news/local/story.aspx? 
content_id=5a9f25a0-23d3-4765-a879-4ea6a8d5407c

 ><^;>
(Dolphin, 15 cents per usage please...)

Have a good one.

Scott Cuzzo
(NOT "islandkayaker" Scott Dunn, who was in my training pod this  
January.  I'm frequently mistaken for Mr. Dunn!  I'm the good looking  
one.)  (OK, maybe not good looking...funny looking.)