Sea Critters – We Are Not Alone Out There

Yesterday while rowing in a strong wind with waves and chop, we had a visit by a pair of dolphins. Now we’ve seen dolphins before, but these two were mighty different and scared the heck out of us. They came from behind us, and were inside and jumped over the oars, and under the next set, and then turned around and did it all over again. Talk about seeing the whites of their eyes!

We got some pretty significant splashing and movement of our boat sideways—which was really fun once we knew what they were. Iva said they were positively graceful and beautiful, and just plain lovely creatures. It was so wild, I almost thought we were the first act at Sea World!

I’ve mentioned that we see seals all the time, and they’re likely to pop up anywhere and even follow us for quite a while. Now the sea lions are another matter—you just don’t want to get too close to them because they weigh several thousand pounds, and if they get angry or too interested, they can really cause havoc with your boat. So, giving them some distance is a good idea.

Now the “piece de resistance” was this giant animal that came up from the deep—at least it looked damn giant to us! By the time it got completely out of the water, we realized that it was a baby humpback whale. It tailed for a second and then came splashing down. It was just inside the break water. I guess just one look at us and he decided to never surface again.

They say they are the sea serpents, but we haven’t had any sightings of those as yet. Add in the myriad of types of birds in ones and twos, and giant flocks on migration. Nature’s bounty truly adds to the fun of being out there on the water.