We did everything in our power to avoid a confrontation. Brought our dinghy to the furthest possible dock with the least amount of Sea Lions. Came back to the boat at a decent hour
before absolute sunset. Made a very modest entrance to the dinhy dock. But they still attacked us. I never knew Biagio could run so fast on a vertical ladder with his bicycle in hand.
“OK boys, get back. This is my dock!!!” shouted Biagio. “You just stay there!” he proclaimed in a boisterous voice. I was impressed as if he was talking to a great big, big dog. But as he lowered the first bike down the vertical ladder, I was coaching him from up above to warn him when the loudest, biggest male sea lion was coming after him. “He’s coming at you now!” I shouted. The dock was not very large so the sea lion could reach him in only a few flipper flaps away. We just learned at the UC Santa Cruz Marine Research Center on our bicycle ride that the males can weigh roughly 5,000 pounds. I would guess that was about the weight of the
one coming after Biagio. At the last minute, the male sea lion bounced in the water but could resurface on the dinghy dock at any moment and land on Biagio. The center warned us not to get to close to the sea lions because they see everything as furniture and can roll over you and also bite. So there is Biagio, with thoughts of being a side chair or a couch. I have never seen him run so fast up a vertical ladder much less with a bicycle. If fact, if I wasn’t standing there, I’m sure he would have gone all the way to the top of the ladder and onto the pier. “It’s OK” I coached him, "I think he turned back". Once again the bull sea lion returned to his corner of the dinghy dock barking at Biagio the entire time.
Then we started to attract a crowd on the upper pier deck watching us trying to get into the dinghy. I’m not sure who they were rooting for but it was probably very entertaining. We never knew exactly what this male sea lion had on his mind or whether we were going to be a couch to him.
As we started pulling away from the dock, looking at all three sea lions from a distance, we were relieved when we felt that they were more likely to jump back onto the dinghy dock than into our dinghy. Whewww… Safely back on the boat in the bay, waiting for the hot water to heat up for a shower before watching our rented foreign movies, I’m glad to be back on our rocking, rolling boat. Safe for the time being from sea lions.
P.S. I've since taken a sea lion training course and learned that we need to hold our bicycles in front of us and look threatening. This is sea lion talk for 'back off'.
