Dolphins sighted

[tpfaok]

Sighted two dolphins last Sat near the Keta mark.  They were around 10 metres away.

First saw smooth greyish mass above the water surface followed by the dorsal fins.

Dropped my sail but failed to spot them again.

I whistled some aimless tunes hoping to attract them as I have read that whistling is one of the ways dolphins communicate.  Might have fared better if I could recall and whistle the Flipper (1960 TV series) theme song.

Checked local websites to confirm that I saw dolphins and not sharks.

[Norman]

Cool.

I saw a bunch of them one day during my Pasta days. I first got a jolt of fright from the dark grey shape in the water ahead of me, but then it poked its head up and seemed to look at me. Then 2 others popped up and checked me out too. I was surprised at how big they were, these were not the "Flipper" type, they were huge.

The amazing thing was that 2 tongkangs were offloading gear to and fro just a few meters away, revving their engines like mad and making a crap-load of ruckus. But it never bothered the dolphins one bit.

Anyways, they vanished as suddenly as they'd appeared.

Last year I also saw one leap clear off the water a few times right next to a surfer near Bedok Bouy.

Amazing creatures.

[FKPhil]

Several years ago back in England I set off from the beach into a very windy scruffy sea; and this bloody big dolphin appeared next to me and accompanied me out. I was planning but it had no trouble keeping up with me; pitching just centimetres from my board and occasionally jumping in front of my bow. I was so stunned and amazed I just kept going out for miles with this thing with me all the time. What a ride.
Eventually I wiped out on my turn, and this big thing was splashing and arching right around me all the time I was setting up to waterstart. I have to admit it was a bit lonely & spooky being up to my ears way out in a big sea with a big wild animal like that playing around me. I did start to lose confidence in the extent of my knowledge of dolphin diet.
When I did get going I had the sea with me and blasted in at warp speed; and it couldn’t keep up with me then ... or maybe it gave me a break sensing the fear was pushing me close to brown alert.

[tpfaok]

The first thing that came to my mind after sighting the dolphins was the fishermen's nets  .
Wonder if a dolphin can break through if it gets entangled in a net.

[Norman]

Several years ago back in England I set off from the beach into a very windy scruffy sea; and this bloody big dolphin appeared next to me and accompanied me out. I was planning but it had no trouble keeping up with me; pitching just centimetres from my board and occasionally jumping in front of my bow. I was so stunned and amazed I just kept going out for miles with this thing with me all the time. What a ride.
Eventually I wiped out on my turn, and this big thing was splashing and arching right around me all the time I was setting up to waterstart. I have to admit it was a bit lonely & spooky being up to my ears way out in a big sea with a big wild animal like that playing around me. I did start to lose confidence in the extent of my knowledge of dolphin diet.
When I did get going I had the sea with me and blasted in at warp speed; and it couldn’t keep up with me then ... or maybe it gave me a break sensing the fear was pushing me close to brown alert.

I reckon it vamoosed coz all its pretentious splashing had the resident great white swimming over.

Epic anecdote. Kinda leaves my dolphin story in its dust.

[PlaneSailin]

Well, as we're swapping dolphin stories, I have a whale of a tale...

Back in late '07 I spent a few months in Queensland, Australia.  One day I was sailing off Kurrawa beach (Gold Coast); it was blowing a good sideshore 20+ knots and I was about 1 km from shore, blasting out into the beautiful pacific ocean with my 5.7, when, about 100m in front of me, a huge Killer Whale breached the surface!  A big, shiny black and white monster!  SO I decided I was out of my league and immediately gybed - and fell in the water.  (My gybing skills were nearly nonexistent back then). I scrambed back onto the board and uphauled (also no waterstart skills back then) in record time and sped back to the beach, heart pounding!   

Another time, same location, it was a cold, grey, very bleak sort of day - but it was howling well over 20 knots again so I went out anyway.  Again, 1 km from shore, I was heading back in, when I saw FOUR dorsal fins coming directly towards me! This caused instant, deep panic bordering on shock, as I felt for one moment that I was truly going to die, out there, all alone, on this cold grey day.  It only took a few moments to realise that they were just porpoises, not sharks, but the psychological damage had been done!  I felt really bad and just blasted back to shore as fast as possible and went home... 

About a year later, a Great White the size of a horse was caught in the shark nets right off the same beach, so some of my paranoia was probably justified...!

Never seen a dolphin while windsurfing, though...