We’re off!
Weeks of planning finally boils down to departure day – 
phone calls, charts, website updates, last minute provisioning – all part of the day… then Dave Robinson, SeaLife Conservation Program Director, has us all over for a traditional pre-sail dinner of fresh fish and salad… one last check of the email, and the mapping site, then we’re off to the harbor… 
All well after our 12 hour shakedown from Santa Cruz to Morro Bay, With little fanfare, and under the watch of only the slipped boats in Santa Cruz harbor, we let the lines at 10:30 Monday night, under the full moon. After a few high-fives and fist bumps, our crew of six settled in for sleep and our shifts on watch. My first watch came at 3:00am – I joined Martijn Stiphout at the helm, then an hour later he was relived by Capt Mark. I slept again before sunrise, and woke to scan the horizon… 
I saw a little bump, getting bigger quickly. Debris – we turn the boat, get the net, and here’s our first retrieval, a smiley-face balloon…
A few minutes later, a humpback whale came and thanked us with a beautiful show; a few blows and and some turns, then a beautiful dive (tail in the air), and a minute or two a return breach out of the water – very cool. I had camera in hand from taking the retrieval picture, and I switched it to video to catch this: 
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