by-the-wind sailors california coast
Definition
A colloquial term for Velella velella, small colonial hydrozoans that resemble jellyfish with a distinctive sail-like fin, frequently washing up in large numbers on beaches along the California coast due to wind and currents.
These iridescent blue 'sailors' are not true jellyfish but siphonophores, drifting at the ocean's surface until storms propel them ashore, turning California's sandy shores into a surreal sea of sapphire stragglers.
Examples
Tourists on the California coast gasped as thousands of by-the-wind sailors beached themselves, turning the sand into a disco floor of floating fails.
Forget cruise ships—by-the-wind sailors are the budget travelers of the sea, hitchhiking winds to crash uninvited on California's coastline parties.
Surfing the breeze like tiny buccaneers, by-the-wind sailors remind us that even ocean drifters end up high and dry on the California coast.
When by-the-wind sailors swarm the California coast, it's nature's way of saying, 'Hold my beer while I sail straight into a beach buffet.'