Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/510933
TheAssociatedPress SAN DIEGO A surprising stowaway startled a man out on his boat in San Di- ego: A sea lion pup who de- cided to crash in a bunk, waking the owner with his snoring. Michael Duffy, 48, said he was on his 41-foot Ketten- burg boat "Elixir" at the San Diego Yacht Club when he awoke at 2:30 a.m. Sunday to sneezing and snoring. He thought it might be a friend, crashing from a night out, but couldn't find anyone. Once it got light a few hours later, however, he heard it again. That's when Duffy saw a 35-pound sea lion pup on another bunk, curled up like a dog on top of his board shorts. "It was a tiny little guy, and I was kind of shocked, but he was basically asleep," Duffy said, guessing it was a male. "Then he heard me com- ing, so he kind of looked up a little bit like when a dog is sleeping and you want to wake it up and it doesn't want to wake up." Duffy said the pup was probably looking for his mom but found him in- stead. Duffy grabbed his cell- phone and took a photo of the pup, who had already jumped down onto the cabin floor. "You gotta go buddy, go... go, go, go," Duffy said, as he filmed, softly coaxing the baby sea lion back up the stairs, off the boat and into the water. Duffy has been sailing since he was 6 years old and has grown up around the marine environment; he'd heard of sea lions get- ting onto boats, but going down below? "Totally bizarre," he said, adding: "Sea lions they can be cute, but they can be dangerous. You've got to be careful it's a wild animal." If the sea lion had been an adult, he would have stayed away. But, he said this pup was very well be- haved and left no mess, not even seawater on his shorts. "He was extremely well behaved, except for his loud snoring and sneezing," Duffy said. "He was looking at me, and I was like 'you gotta go.'" He said the pup had an orange tag on its flipper and he believed it may have been once rescued after washing onto the shore, before being set free again. The baby sea lion appeared to be healthy and swam fine, and it was seemingly no stranger to humans. Duffy, an advertising copywriter, said he nick- named the pup "Gilligan" after the character on "Gilli- gan's Island" who The Skip- per called his little buddy. "It was a very personal thing, and he was a very cute guy," Duffy said. "But I was a little emo- tional about it. For that 2 ½ minutes he was my lit- tle buddy." STOWAWAY Se a li on p up s ta rt le s sa il or o n yacht with snoring, sneezing The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO A panel overseeing a new $6.4 billion eastern span of the San Francisco-Oak- land Bay Bridge approved spending up to $4 million to study the latest prob- lems discovered with the structure. The three-member Toll Bridge Program Over- sight Committee ap- proved the funding Mon- day after an anchor rod in the bridge's tower failed a test and salt was found in other parts of the tower, the San Francisco Chron- icle reported. "We've got some reas- surance that we need to provide people that they got the bridge that they paid for and the bridge is safe," said Steve Heminger, chairman of the commit- tee. Toll-payer funds will be used to determine the ex- tent of the problems. "We're going to get to the bottom of it, and if there is a problem, we're going to fix it," said Randy Rentschler, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commis- sion, which is headed by Heminger. Rentschler said the bridge is safe for use. The new bridge — in- tended to replace a span that was not considered earthquake-safe — has ex- perienced other problems. Thirty-two bolts that se- cure earthquake shock ab- sorbers to the deck of the bridge cracked in 2013 af- ter they were tightened, threatening to delay the opening of the span. Tests found hydrogen had infected the bolts, making them brittle. At issue now is salt that was found during recent testing in some of the sleeves that hold 25-foot- long steel rods at the base of the tower. One of the rods also moved easily during a test last week. The rods are meant to keep the 525-foot-tall tower from heaving up and down in an earth- quake, the Chronicle re- ported. If the rods are steep- ing in salt water, it could shorten their life span. The bridge has also ex- perienced rust-stained white paint and mis- aligned steel rods. An investigative report requested by lawmakers last year found that offi- cials who oversaw bridge construction from 2007 to 2011 repeatedly brushed off criticism about flawed welding, bolts and other engineering work. The new span replaced one built in the 1930s that was damaged during the 1989 Loma Prieta earth- quake. Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com. FAILED TESTS Bay Bridge committee OKs up to $4M to study latest problems MICHAELDUFFYVIAAP A 35-pound sea lion pup found its way aboard a yacht in San Diego. 741Main Street,Suite#2 Red Bluff, CA 96080 1-800-287-2187 (530) 527-2187 For Over 100 Years Coldwell Banker Has Helped People Find A Home. Now Our Mission Extends To Man's Best Friend! We've Teamed Up With Adopt-A-Pet, North America's Largest Non-Profit Pet Adoption Website To Help Adoptable Dogs Find A Loving Home. Visit http://blog.coldwellbanker.com/adoptapet For More Information! TM WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 2015 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 5 B