Today I did a paddle at Monterey from MBK out to the yellow buoy beyond the Aquarium and back. The notable part, other than a semi-standard flat as a duck pond Monterey bay was as my buddy and I paddled along parallel to the breakwater. I was startled by an otter surfacing about 6 feet off the right side of my boat. I stopped paddling so I wouldn't run into it, if he swam the 'wrong' way, and sure enough s/he did. The otter swam right at me, and jumped out of the water right onto my front deck!! That really startled me and I almost fell out of the boat. The otter sat there looking at me as if expecting applause (or food). Being a little nervous about having it end up in my lap looking for a treat, and also worried that one of the federal marine mammal protectors might see it there and think I had lured it up there (EXPENSIVE ticket for a federal violation), I splashed water at it with my paddle and shouted, "SHOO". Rebuffed by my hearless reaction, it dove off my boat and climbed halfway onto my partner's front deck, sniffing around the edges of his front hatch. Its behavior makes me pretty certain it has had good experiences with people and around the hatches of kayaks at some time earlier in its life. I'd have given a lot to have someone videoing the experience, I'll bet the look on my face was priceless! Fair winds and happy bytes, -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave Flory, San Jose, CA. daflory_at_pacbell.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Speak softly and study Aikido, then you won't need a big stick. ©2000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Aug 08 2000 - 21:22:39 PDT
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