Sea Lions, Whales & Rescuees:

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We took a trip to the Santa Barbara Sailing School (in Santa Barbara California), and here's what we found:

These pictures are of the marina and us taking lessons. We had to learn quick because,...

Just when we had finished our lessons, we found a boat in distress and towed it back. (Their engine broke, good thing we had sails!)

Near our learning area was a buoy that the local people called the "seal buoy." They were wrong though, because these are really sea lions. The sea lions love to climb on the buoy and played "king of the mountain" to see who could get on top.

Not all of the sea lions fit on the buoy, some of them had to swim!

We sailed past the sea lions and onward towards Santa Cruz island. Santa Cruz island is being preserved in its natural state, so there aren't many people there.

At the island we found a cave. I like sailing, and I like caves, but I never expected to see a sailboat in a cave!

After visiting the cave, we sailed along the coast of Santa Cruz island and saw some other boats at an anchorage. Then it started to rain.

If I was going to visit a deserted island, I wouldn't want to crash a plane there. These two men were fortunate enough to swim to the island after ditching their small airplane off the coast of the island in the water. We helped rescue them and the United States Coast Guard came to take them back home. Fortunately neither one was injured.

"Thar she blows!" Eventually we had to leave the island, and we saw some whales. (There's a whale in all three pictures). Whales blow spouts of water up in the air when they breathe. They do that for three or four times in a minute or so and all you can see is their backs. After a bit they tack a deep breath and then dive, which is when you get to see their tails. Unfortunately you then don't get to see the whales because they can easily hold their breath for a long time.