It’s always nice to head out to the Pacific Plate, a mere 90 minutes from my humble abode.

On this holiday Monday I was heading out to the outer point of Point Reyes National Seashore. My destination, Chimney Rock and the Point Reyes Lifeboat Station.

The new lifeboat station was built near Chimney Rock in 1927. Lifeboats could be quickly launch on rails into the calm waters of Drakes Bay. And over the years the lifeboat of Chimney Rock saved many a sailor.

With the advent of Coast Guard cutters and helicopters the station became redundant and was decommissioned on December 16, 1969.

For over 150 years, no elephant seals were seen in Point Reyes and then in the early 1970s (after the lifeboat station was decommissioned), they returned to beaches at the Point Reyes Headlands. In 1981, a breeding pair was discovered at Chimney Rock. The seal population at Point Reyes has been growing ever since.

The beach on either side of the station was being used as an elephant seal birthing beach. The seals were mostly female with a few pups and one male beach master (featured sketch).

I pulled out my sketchbook and started to draw the blubbery contours of the beach master. He was very accommodating, spending much of the sketch playing silent statue.

After my sketch he reared up and bellowed, claiming his patch of the earth and his harem.