I kayak almost everyday living close to the water in Corpus Christi. Occasionally see dolphins, and over the last 9 years have had some close encounters. Once while surfing in the Gulf, a pod of dolphin were surfing into the beach with me, then ducking under and swimming back out to do it again. Lasted about 10 minutes. Have had one or two chase the boat at an angle and then jump in front. Last year I found myself in the middle of a group that must have been having their rite of spring mating ritual...they all looked were frolicking and completely oblivious to my presence. But the jackpot came Saturday in Corpus Christi Bay. It was a beautiful sunny day in the 70’s, clear blue sky, and I had crossed the bay from Corpus Christi, and was about half way between Indian Point and the Alcoa Aluminum Plant on the Ingleside side. As I was paddling along (about 5mph) I saw some dolphin jumping in front of me, passed them to the side of me, and they followed after me. I could hear them surfacing and breathing close to my rear quarter, and was getting a kink in my neck from trying to paddle while looking back at them. Slowed down and waited for them to get in front of me, and then followed for a while to one side of them. There were about four dolphin, two very big ones, and two smaller. They didn’t get too close to the kayak and were pretty much doing their own thing. I tried my bag of tricks to catch their interest....paddling fast, paddling slow, not paddling at all and remaining very quiet, sliding my wet finger along the fiberglass hull to make various squeaking noises (high, low, short, long). They reminded me of the typical puppy who wants to play, but is afraid of the stranger, but once familiarity is gained, won’t quit. The group of four grew to two groups of 4, and they were all around the kayak as I alternated between paddling and coasting. Then in the distance I saw a wave in the glistening sun/water horizon. As it got closer, I saw a V formation of dolphin (largest in front center flanked by two smaller on the sides) and they were bounding at what looked like full speed over to our group. From that point on, the play intensified, and on several occasions a group of three dolphin in V formation would come bounding towards the kayak, and then dive and go under at the last moment. I think their game was to see how close they could come without hitting. I saw them swim very close under the water, and saw the whirlpools come to the surface from their swimming activities. Water was boiling at times...I don’t know if it was from their releasing air under the boat or if it was merely the whirlpools from their strokes. I was in a Dagger Meridian (white hull, yellow deck) with my skeg all the way up in its slot, so I began to wonder if they thought I was a female dolphin from under the water, and maybe this was foreplay rather than horseplay. Many times they would jump out of the water just before coming by the boat so there was lots of eye-to-eye contact. I was so totally engrossed that I it wasn’t until they finally left that I realized this had taken place in a 1-1/4 hour period. It was only as I paddled back home that I also realized that my camera was sitting inside my cockpit and I never once thought about it or taking pictures. Chance of a lifetime and I missed it entirely. The dolphin were beautiful, gleaming in the sunshine, and romping with abandon. Maybe next time I’ll remember to pull my camera and post the pictures on my web page with my other pictures of kayaking around Corpus Christi at: http://home.earthlink.net/~johnsonkw/ _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
In a message dated 2/5/2001 10:28:01 AM Eastern Standard Time, johnsonkw_at_hotmail.com writes: > It was only as I paddled back home that I also realized that my camera was > sitting inside my cockpit and I never once thought about it or taking > pictures. Chance of a lifetime and I missed it entirely. No, you didn't. You have an incredible event to remember, and you took a whole bunch of us along for the ride, too. Thanks. Jack *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Ken, Congregating with dolphins is a most awesome thing to me. I never go out on my local waterway without seeing at least one or two. I've had a few close encounters, one in which I was observing some feeding from what I thought to be a respectful distance, when all of a sudden a couple came racing towards me, dived, and came flying up in the air in Sea World fashion about three boat lengths ahead. It all happened so fast that it scared the crap out of me, and I backpaddled like crazy. They left to rejoin the group. My initial thought was that I had gotten too close and they were being protective of a juvenile that was in the pod. Not exactly sure, but like you, I wished I had a picture of the jump. I like adding visuals to stories, and I rekindle a lot of pleasant memories by looking at photographs. Anyway, I certainly enjoyed reading your story. Sandy in SC *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:20 PDT