Sealion II

So, we all dove on the other side, except I didn't dive. No mask, no snorkel, glasses...um. Not a winner. So I stayed by the float and bobbed a bit while the other fellows went down and fetched up one abalone apiece. They're pretty impressively big (the legal sized ones--they have to be at least 7 inches long to be taken) and they grow kelp and barnacles and limpets and things all over their shells. Kinda like sloths, but, y'know, underwater. After a while the bobbing with the float made me a little motion-sick, so I headed back to shore and paddled in the tide pools for a bit--and discovered a beautiful abalone shell in six inches of water. o-o It was just big enough to be legal to keep, too (if it had been alive when I found it). So I promptly claimed it as my booty, and it is now drying on my windowsill at home in preparation for a life as an ornament on a bookshelf. It's gorgeous--not even chipped. (My insistence on including the shell in our day's "take" occasioned a few laughs, but hey. I take my successes where I can find them.)

The lads didn't have as much success as they would like and we were hoping to find a place with a bit less kelp, so we pulled up stakes and drove a couple of miles down the coast to another spot we had seen and put out again. This went rather more smoothly, but either there weren't enough rocks or there was too much kelp, and we didn't have any luck at all. After a few hours (much longer than we had thought, actually) we got out and drove back. It's a nice drive, really, but we were stressed cuz we thought the dive shop would close at 6 and we would have to come back early in the morning to return the items. Fortunately, it closes at 8, so we made it in plenty of time. I got a really weird sunburn from the wetsuit--my right shoulder is all red, and the rest of my arm is its normal tone(s), so it's kinda a reverse farmer tan.

So, a day of adventure; and now I have an abalone shell, and a story, which I have just told you.

THE END