[Paddlewise] Good Company - Trip Report

On Saturday I decided to get up early and try to get in a few miles paddling before it got too hot.  I watched bits and pieces of the Space Shuttle landing coverage as I gathered up my gear and loaded the car.  As soon as the Shuttle landed I was out the door and headed for Emerald Beach.  It was a little later than I originally planned, but I still got into the water by 7:40 am.  There was just a light breeze out of the south which made for a cool, pleasant start.  The plan was to head southeast down the south shore of Corpus Christi Bay for an hour and then turn and head back along the same course.  I followed the curve of the shoreline past the Cole Park fishing pier, past Oleander point. past Dodridge park and headed toward the condo piers near Airline Drive.  The wind was increasing out of the south, but I was sheltered by the bluff along the shoreline and could only think of how nice it would be to have a strong following wind on the return trip.

It was a totally uneventful trip until I paddled under the first of the 3 piers at the condos.  Between the 2nd and 3rd piers I could see a fin working back and forth.  As I continued toward the 2nd pier I could see that the dolphin was swimming in a straight line toward shore for about 30 yards and then turning and swimming straight back along the same line out about to the end of the piers.   When I was about halfway between the 2nd and 3rd piers I could see the dolphin heading out from shore toward me.  It never changed speed or direction and passed about 10 feet in front of the kayak and kept heading out toward the bay.  I continued on toward the 3rd pier and thought I caught a glimpse of the dolphin turning to follow parallel to me.  However in the couple of minutes it took me to get to the third pier and turn around the dolphin had completely disappeared.  I got a drink of water, adjusted my seat, and waited for a couple of minutes but it never reappeared and I was quite disappointed.

My hour out was up so I headed back.  As I was halfway back to the 2nd pier I saw a large splash between the 1st and 2nd piers.  I was hoping for dolphins, but as I passed under the 2nd pier there was nothing in sight and I was resigned to having a boring trip back.  However, just as I passed under the 1st pier there was a large area of splashing about 30 yards away and slightly shoreward of my direction  There were 2 small bottlenose dolphins swimming in rather random directions in a somewhat circular area.  This is typical of feeding behavior so I swung out toward the bay so as not to disturb them.   As I got closer I thought I saw something small jumping out of the water.   As I watched I could see small fishing leaping out of the water just in front of the dolphins nose.  At one point it looked like on of the dolphins actually flipped a fish out of the water before lunging to grab it.  I watched for a few minutes and then started paddling backwards so I could continue to see the dolphins even as I headed for home.  

To my surprise one of them started following me.  I was having a little trouble controlling my direction so I swung around and switched to forward paddling.  As I looked out toward the bay I had 2 dolphins with me.   They were about 30 feet away and just slightly behind me.  They would submerge for a while and then just when I was sure they were gone would appear again just off to the bay side of my kayak.  Sometimes they were a couple of boat lengths away and sometimes they were within 10 ft or so.  At one point I was sure they were gone so I swung around for a little back-paddling to see where they might have headed.  Instead of the distant view I was expecting they surfaced right behind me.  After a few appearances they disappeared and I switched back to forward paddling.  Amazingly they were still with me.  We stayed together for about a mile and then suddenly they made a hard left turn and headed straight for the kayak.  About 10 ft away they dived.  I looked for them to surface on the other side but they never did.  I paddled a little way and then swung around to see if there was any sign of them.  There was nothing near or far so I headed on home.   The wind was about 15 mph with some higher gusts so I was having an easy return trip.  I tried surfing a few of the wind waves, but they were not quite developed enough for good rides.  I got back to the beach at exactly the 2 hr mark.  

Even when paddling solo you can sometimes find good company for your trip.


Mark J. Arnold
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