High Flight

Didn’t have to ask us twice. When we were approached by the Ocean Conservancy to document the North Coastline by plane, we were all about it. Thanks to the impressive pilotage of Grant in his Cessna Skywagon 185, we were skyhigh midday to photograph from Point Arena, Mendocino (California’s furthest western locale) on up to the Oregon bordertown of Brookings.

It was a beautiful, windless afternoon that was impacted by a marine layer only at Shelter Cove through the 200 miles of coastline. Grant is the kind of guy that you wanted to be when you were a kid... or still: a flight instructor with 20 years experience, surfer, builder and soon-to-be law student who frequently spends his weekends flying to Montana and Santa Barbara (once to Costa Rica). Heck of a nice guy, too - making time to drop in over two breaching gray whales about two miles off Petrolia. Coast well photographed, Grant throttled the nimble single-prop about 25 feet over the waves near Fern Canyon. It was finally appropriate to utter the overused “Awesome!” The OC will be using the 333 images in its efforts to publicize the need for keep the North Coast seas pristine. With an aerial view, who could argue?