Published September 15, 2005

A Saturday boat trip to the Farallon Islands was part ecstasy and part agony.

The ecstasy included seeing humpback whales, Risso’s dolphins, harbor porpoises, albatrosses and a tufted puffin. It was magical to get up close to the starkly beautiful southeastern Farallon Island that juts out of the ocean. Its rocky, mostly barren surface, this time of year, is covered with cormorants and other birds and its shores are littered with countless sea lions.

The agony (though maybe that’s too strong a word) included spending eight hours on a 50-foot-long fishing boat that bobbed like a cork amongst the mighty Pacific’s swells. One seasick passenger spent most of the trip at the railing or flat on his back; he didn’t even bother to turn his head and open his eyes when we sailed alongside two humpback whales.

Those are some impressions I had on a voyage to the Farallons offered through the Oceanic Society. It’s a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that’s been hosting cruises to the Farallons for 21 years.

The trip cost $85. The boat left at 8 a.m. from the San Francisco Yacht Harbor, near the Golden Gate Bridge.

Getting to the yacht harbor from Sonoma was a snap. Parking also was easy; there are plenty of free parking spaces right alongside the harbor.

The pre-trip information that came in the mail warned that “even on the sunniest day, when the vessel is underway, it is cold (average temperature is 50 degrees) and windy, and sea spray is likely. RAIN GEAR IS ESSENTIAL.”

All true. Although skies were clear all day, my rain jacket and rain pants kept me from getting soaked when the spray shot over the side.

I also was glad that I had layered on the clothes and brought a stocking cap for the cold (which I alternated with a broad-brimmed hat for the sun). And I was glad to have slathered on the sun screen, though I still sustained some sunburn.

It’s rugged out there on the open seas, folks.

It’s also beautiful.

As we sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge, it looked smaller than it does when you’re driving on it. And then we saw harbor porpoises, which at five feet in length and about 130 pounds in weight, are one of the smallest members of the cetacean family, which includes dolphins and whales.

Harbor porpoises? I never knew there was such a thing. It was the first of several first-time-ever wildlife sightings.

Soon we were far out to sea and the land disappeared. The waves got big and the boat felt like a roller coaster, especially when sitting in the bow. It would hover at the top of a wave and then plunge down.

It wasn’t long before the aforementioned seasick fellow literally turned greenish and leaned against the railing, a spot that he returned to frequently during the next seven hours. The captain already had instructed us that the two bathrooms on board were for two things — and seasickness wasn’t one of them.

I was glad to have taken Dramamine (though I dozed off a couple times during the trip) as well as ginger capsules. Ginger, incidentally, is supposed to be as effective as Dramamine for motion sickness. The pre-trip material warns you to take motion-sickness medicine and not to eat a fatty, pre-trip breakfast. Incidentally, no food or water is available on board; you have to bring your own.

The waves made it a little hard to aim my binoculars. But the waves didn’t stop me from dozing off.

After about three hours, we were near the southeastern Farallon Island, which is about 27 miles offshore of San Francisco. The boat wasn’t allowed to land and we weren’t able to go ashore. Due to the sensitive nature of the birds that nest there, only biologists are allowed on the island.

So we idled in a protected harbor.

The smell of bird guano, or poop, hits you right away. The island, which is a national wildlife refuge, supports a quarter-million birds.

The island is made of 90-million-year-old granite and is mainly vegetation-free; it looks like something out of the Nevada desert.

The Oceanic Society has a biologist go along on each voyage. The biologist, the boat’s captain and a sharp-eyed mate scanned the horizon for wildlife.

Pretty soon, the boat was following a swimming tufted puffin, a pigeon-sized, arctic-dwelling bird with a colorful, toucan-like beak. Passengers pulled out their binoculars to get glimpses of the odd-looking bird.

Then we sailed around to the other side of the island and saw two identical, Victorian-style homes that once housed lighthouse keepers but now are home to biologists; the lighthouse is unmanned and works automatically.

There’s no source of fresh water on the island, so there’s a paved area where rainwater collects and flows into two dome-shaped cisterns. Our boat’s biologist explained that a sophisticated filtration system removes the bird guano from the water.
Next, we were off to the shelf where the ocean floor falls away from a depth of about 400 feet to 2000 feet. The ship’s captain got on a loudspeaker (which he isn’t allowed to use near the island because it would bother the birds) and started reeling off numbers from his depth-finder as the water got deeper and deeper.

Then, someone spotted whales spouting. We pulled up alongside some humpback whales. A little later, we spotted and tracked some Risso’s dolphins, a blunt-headed cetacean that’s one of the bigger members of the cetacean family at about 10 feet long.
People scurried to the bow or one side or the other of the boat to get a better view, causing the boat to list, or lean, in a somewhat frightening manner.

But we stayed out of Davey Jones’ locker and made it back to the city. It was almost worth the price of the trip just to sail into San Francisco and see it from the ocean. What a beautiful city.

Despite the rugged aspects of the trip, the tiredness and sunburn, the voyage was worth it.

Find out more: The Ocean Conservancy’s Farallon Islands Whale Watching trips continue until November 20.

For more information, check the organization’s Web site at www.oceanconservancy.org or call 415-474-3385.