Peter Treby wrote: >I saw a dorsal fin slicing along the surface >for maybe 5 metres, then it disappeared, G'Day, Just back from a long trip to the Whitsundays, a group of islands at the southern tip of the Great Barrier reef. Wonderful place to go in our July winter, when the box jellyfish and irukanji are on leave and strong steady winds sigh through the trees discouraging mossies. We paddled from island to island and camped between the hoop pines, the casuarinas and the coral sand. Anyway Elizabeth and I were ferry gliding between Cateran Bay and Hook Island, while our companions let the current take them in an arc. The currents were strong that day. About halfway across she points and exclaims "Whats that". A hammerhead shark had just leaped half out of the water. It had a lithe silver grey blue green body, was about 3.5 metres long, just a little shorter than her sea kayak. This fish must have known Elizabeth was about to be elected club president. It treated her with the utmost respect, circled her boat, swimming under it, along its side and down and around mine. It was the most elegant looking shark I've ever seen. There was no sense of aggression and it seemed as curious about us as we were about it. Afterwards we were told it was unusual to see a hammerhead leap like that, a rare privilege. All the best, PeterO (Sydney, Australia) *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Jul 28 2005 - 17:12:19 PDT
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