3 North 0 South 6 hours

Bright Sunny skies, 73 degrees warm day with gusty 17+ mph off shore Santa Ana Winds. White caps across the Santa Monica Bay. Ancient Giant Coreopsis in bloom along Poppy Lane in the Point Dume State Park. The new staircase at the park into Big Dume Cove is currently shut down due to massive sand erosion of the cliff during the recent winter storms. Sea Lion Cove, is filled with over 25 hauled out Sea lions. Later, photos revealed one has a visible rope entanglement injury (photo below). Will update this post after checking in with California Wildlife Center who rescues injured or sick marine mammals. The first and only whale sighting of the day was four hours later with a trio traveling in a tight group with two up front and one slightly trailing. All looked healthy. Later a stampede of very active sea lions hunted a massive bait ball 500 yards off shore out side of the buoy at Tower two. The wind died down to 7-10 mph later in afternoon leaving sea spray in the 2-3 ft waves. Temperature dropped to 63 degrees which felt much colder with the wind chill (ha ha :)) A small sliver of a green flash seen at sunset.