Britney Spears was in town making a video and when they finished shooting a day early someone suggested that they do some sea kayaking. I was lucky enough to get called to take them out. Since the water temp is still greater than 80 degF I let them know that bikinis were appropriate paddling wear. We practiced wet exits and rescues, but Britney was still a little uncomfortable. She said that just in case something serious happened she would feel better if we practiced some mouth to mouth resuscitation. So ... Wait a minute. That's my fantasy paddle not what I wanted to write about. That subject line just got me a little distracted. Now for what I really wanted to write. Some of you may remember my post about having to deliver on a promise of great encounters with dolphins. (made at a kayak symposium to people who lived 2500 miles from me and whom I never expected to see again). I thought I had learned my lesson and I was trying hard to maintain "truth in advertising" when discussing my paddling trips. However, I fell off the wagon on a recent paddle. I was paddling with a new resident to our area when we spotted 3 dolphins about a 100 yards away. We got within maybe 50 yards, but they were going their own way and simply disappeared. He was excited about the encounter but I was not to impressed. I just had to open my mouth and explain that the bay was not the best place to see dolphins. "Heck we have a place where the dolphins do cartwheels over the kayak, tow the kayaks by the bowlines, and bring fish to the kayak if you scratch their bellies" I told him. Yea, yea I was a little over the top, but this guy paddled only in the bay and only on weekday afternoons and was too busy to actually get out to this "magical" destination. That night he calls and informs me that he has rearranged all his business meetings and is ready to go out for the "Dolphin Paddle" the day after tomorrow. "Oops I did it again". This time I would have to deliver or face the guilt of possibly ruining his business for nothing. We launched from the Lighthouse Lakes Kayak Trail parking area and headed west up the Aransas Pass Shrimp Channel. We saw a few egrets and surfed the wake of a shrimp boat coming back in from the Gulf. We had paddled for about 40 minutes without any sign of dolphins and we would soon be out of the best sighting area. Without any real conviction, I told Jeff that I was going to try calling the dolphins. I reached down and produced my dolphin call squeaks by running my finger back and forth against the wet side of the kayak. Within 5 minutes there were splashes and a loud "whoosh". Sure enough we had 5 dolphins just off to our right. Uncharacteristically they moved out of the main channel and into the flats. We had fairly high water so they were still in 4-5 feet of water (rather than the normal 1-2 feet in that area). The shallower water did not stop any of their antics. They were jumping completely clear of the water, doing spins and cartwheels on some jumps, doing lots of tail slaps, and swimming on their sides at the surface of the water (creating lots of splash). There was also a lot of body to body contact as they were swimming. We just sat and drifted slowly in the same direction they seemed to be moving in between all their antics. After about 10 minutes we seemed to be closing the distance on them. I did not want to push them into really shallow water so we turned to paddle back parallel to the channel. I hoped we could circle around them and get on the downwind, shallow water side so we could watch them without getting too close. I looked back to see if Jeff was following and in addition to him I am being followed by 5 dolphins. The next thing you know Jeff is doing a brace off a dolphin's back (actually he just missed it but it looked that way to me). Then a couple of them are porpoising just a couple of feet in front of the kayaks and then swimming between the two kayaks. For the next 15-20 minutes they play with us. Sometimes they swim away and we stop paddling. Then we start paddling again and they come back and swim alongside again. At one point I am paddling backwards and watching 2 dolphins chasing Jeff's kayak. He can't see them right behind him, but I am getting a good show. Suddenly another dolphin surfaces just a couple of yards off my left. Finally we decided that we needed to get back on our intended course. We left the dolphins behind and turned north into Corpus Christi Bayou. On the west side by Hog Island there were a couple of barges and a large floating drilling rig. A work boat turned into the bayou and headed for the drilling rig. We moved to the far side to stay out of its way. Even at a distance we could hear the droning of the engines and compressors on the drill rig. Then I saw that there were 3 dolphins following the work boat. We continued on past the drill rig and headed toward the gas well platform that sits in the middle of the channel. Then I noticed that the dolphins were headed our way again. In just a couple of minutes they closed the distance between us and then slowed down to follow us. First on one side, then the other. We went around the platform on the left and they went to the right. As we cleared the platform they swam back over right next to us and this time decided to lead instead of follow. For the next few minutes they swam a couple of yards off my bow slowing when I did and speeding up when I did. When a passing fishing boat caused the dolphins to disappear for a couple of minutes my attention turned to the dark clouds forming to our northwest. The clouds seemed to be getting darker and were now moving towards us. We still had about 3-4 hours of paddling to complete our planned circumnavigation of Harbor Island. We discussed the situation and decided that we should head back to the launch site just in case. If the weather cleared we could still paddle the opposite direction from our original start and complete part of our intended circumnavigation. Fortunately the high water allowed us to take a short cut across one of the flats. Paddling through some 1-2 foot water felt as if we were dragging buckets behind us. We were joined by 4 sit-on-top fishing kayaks coming out from the Lighthouse Lakes Trails as we headed in. They had been out fishing for about 6 hours. We all got in before the weather turned bad. We watched the clouds for a few minutes and decided that they were definitely headed our way. We had made the right decision. As I was strapping down the kayak the winds really picked up and by the time we turned onto the highway it was raining so hard that I could hardly see in front of me. It was a shorter trip than planned, but the dolphins were pretty cool. No cartwheels over the kayaks, but we did get lots of jumps and aerial acrobatics. No towing by dolphin, but if I had a little more goat roping experience I might have lassoed a dolphin with my bow line. No fish brought to the kayak, but Jeff did ask if we could paddle up and pet them and at times was close enough to do so. I discouraged this petting strongly and reminded him that we should not paddle into the middle of the pod, but that it was okay if they chose to come close as we were paddling. I guess I survived another speaking without thinking incident. From now on I'll just tell everyone that we never see dolphins (much less get close to them), that the weather and water are just not suitable for year round paddling, that we do not have some of the best winter birding in the country, and that we do not have any variety in paddling (beach surfing, flat water touring, open water touring, coastal river paddling, urban paddling). Ah, the truth be told, I am a native Texan and there is no way I am going stop bragging about the kayaking down here. If only I could actually do that fantasy paddle with Britney I would really have something to brag about. Mark J. Arnold Mark Arnold mjamja_at_earthlink.net Why Wait? Move to EarthLink. *************************************************************************** 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. 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Mark wishes in his dreams>> > Britney Spears was in town making a video and when they finished shooting a day early someone suggested that they do some sea kayaking. << OK since we're on the subject. Hey this is no kidding........ I once was a safety boater for Gabrielle Reese when she did a photo shoot for M-TV Sports. We put her in a Topo-Duo ( a German whitewater K-2) and ran her down the White Salmon class III milk run complete with 7' Husum Falls (IV+). We had a raft for the camera gear and two safety boaters. Brian Tooley got the privilege of co-paddlin' the Topo! Got multiple hugs and a signed T-shirt at the end of the day! If anyone swings by the shop I can show you the 5 minutes of glory that aired on M-TV repeatedly for about a month. ;-) steve Alder Creek Kayak & Canoe N 45º 36.285' 250 NE Tomahawk Isle Dr. W 122º 39.841' Portland, OR 97217 Web: www.aldercreek.com Phone: 503.285.0464 Email: aldercreek_at_qwest.net *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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