SAN FRANCISCO The Salty Lady pitched and rolled, reared up to unsettling verticality and slammed down with a percussive thud. Again and again, literally ad nauseam, the boat was tossed by 30-knot winds and the rhythmic swelling of the waves, the Pacific anything but on this day.

Yet, this sturdy, workmanlike 56-foot fishing boat, employed by the nonprofit Oceanic Society to show eco-minded tourists the wild and untamed splendor of the Farallon Islands 27 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge, kept plugging along with engine belching, enduring wave after white-capped wave, trough and crest repeating like a sadistic amusement park ride.

Two hours in, and barely 12 miles out to sea, Jared Davis, the boat's captain, came on the loud speaker.

"Sorry, folks. This just happens sometimes," he said. "I've contacted some of the other boats out there, and it's too rough. We've got to turn back."

Nature, of course, is not always accommodating to schedules, and that's especially true when it comes to visiting to the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge. No one, save a few biologists studying seabirds and marine mammals, may step foot on the jagged granite outcroppings, yet hard-core birders and curious adventurers still yearn to glimpse these wild islands from afar.

No one was initially more excited and, ultimately, more disappointed than John Elliott, who came from Illinois because the Farallons, a.k.a. Farallones, were "my bucket list kind of thing."

Alas, he didn't even get to unsheath his binoculars.

So just getting within a quarter-mile of the Farallones' shore the closest that tourist boats may get lest they disturb the delicate habitat can be a chore, as well as a nautical achievement. Sometimes, weekend excursions are aborted midtrip, sometimes canceled even before setting sail. It's entirely weather-dependent.

But a week after the Salty Lady's abbreviated trip, the winds had calmed enough for another attempt. This time, it took slightly more than three hours for tourists, as well as three scientists from San Jose State University lugging food and other provisions, to see the islands' jutting peaks peeking out on the widening horizon.

Located near the edge of the continental shelf, where depth changes from hundreds of feet to thousands, the Farallon Islands can be smelled before they're seen.

Original post:

California islands: The bird paradise of the Farallons