> > > > So the whole day was spent lounging around on the boat at various locations, soaking up sunshine and chasing penguins. There were penguins by the truckload - they like warm days with a calm sea, or maybe it's just that they're easier to spot on such days.
> > >
> > > OK, at least one person has gone "penguins? wha? huh?" to me since I mentioned this. In New Zealand we find copious amounts of the Little Blue penguin (also called the Fairy penguin), which is possibly the world's cutest sea bird. They're little tiny things about 20 cm long, and on the water you normally see them in ones or twos. Here's a picture of them. If you go to the main gallery at this site, you can find gannets too.
> >
> > I suppose you know that some of us would pay big bucks to do what you do as part of your civic duty.
> > Howard
>
> I know. That's one of the best things about it. :-) The only thing that's annoying is how I've only seen orcas (killer whales) once, and they were too far away to really look at them. Everybody else seems to find them all over the place. For one exciting moment, I thought yesterday's dolphins might be orcas, because they were so big and black. *sigh*

I saw orcas in the Gulf of Alaska. Also flying fish for the first time. When I was a kid, everybody in the state of Florida had seen flying fish except me.
Howard