I had not paddled for several days and was looking forward to a nice paddle on a warm sunny Sunday. Of course I over slept so I could not get the early start I had planned. I decided to eat an early lunch and get into the water by noon. As usual I got on the computer and the next thing I know it was almost noon before I get started on lunch. I started loading the car and realized both sets of rechargeable batteries for my GPS were dead. I put them on the 1hr charger, but I knew that it was going to delay me even more. With all the delays I managed to to get down to the marina about 2:15 and started unloading gear. I struggled into my dry-top only to realize that I did not put my skirt on first. Despite my best efforts the skirt was not going on properly after the dry top. So I struggled out of the dry-top, put on the skirt and started the struggle back into the dry top. That nice little "crunch" I heard while my head was inside the dry-top turned out to be the sound of my foot pressing my fallen glasses into the pavement until one of the lenses popped out. A person who believed in omens might have packed up and gone home at this point, but I decided to continue. Omen or not I did decide to unlock 3 doors so it would be harder to lock the keys in the car by accident. I managed to get the kayak down, loaded, and into the water without further mishap. Water temp was around 50degF so I was dutifully wearing my 3mm Farmer John, longsleeve Hydroskin top, neoprene tubed skirt, and a dry-top. Air temp was about 68degF and there was bright sunshine so needless to say I was thinking that maybe I should have just gone to a sauna if I wanted to be a little cooler. It was cooler and more comfortable on the water as I paddled out of the marina and into the bay. However as I paddled along the outside of the marina breakwater I began to sweat profusely. Within a few minutes my eyes were burning and I was paddling mostly with my eyes shut. I managed to paddle past the end of the breakwater without running into it and then made my way into the shallow water along McGee beach. I got out my water bottle and rinsed out my eyes several time. Amazingly I managed to do this without turning over or drooping my spare glasses into the water. As far as I was concerned the paddle was over and I was heading back to the launch. About 3/4 of the way back to the marina entrance I saw the dolphins. First one fin, then two, and finally 3. It seemed the day was not going to be a total loss. I angled away from the breakwater to give them some room, but they turned and headed for me. The next thing I knew I had dolphins repeatedly popping up just off my rear quarter. Then one surfaced several times right beside me about 10 feet away. The "follow to the rear then pop up close" action was repeated a couple of times. Then all 3 surfaced right beside me. The closest was less than 5 feet away and the others were right alongside it. They were perfectly synchronized and just offset enough that the front of one dorsal fin started right at the end of the other dolphin's fin. They made a couple of these synchronized passes and then retreated farther behind me. I continued paddling, but they seemed to be staying out of sight behind me. I decided to turn around and paddle backwards to see if I could get a better few. As I turned around I realized they were right behind me. As I slowed making the spin they passed me and I turned back around to my original direction. I turned just in time to see a large disturbance in the water (a tail slap I think). Almost immediately the largest of the 3 dolphins went clear of the water in a long graceful horizontal leap directly in front of me. Wow, this paddle was getting better by the minute. I decided not to end the trip so quickly and continued playing tag with the dolphins for about another 30 minutes as I paddled north and crossed the ship channel to rest at the bow of the aircraft carrier Lexington. Sometimes I paddled forward and sometimes I paddled backwards to get a better view. They never got as close as earlier and did not make any more jumps, but it was still great having them following along. As I started to head up North Beach I heard a whistle and turned to see John coming toward me in his Tsunami 165. He had actually come around the other side of the Lexington heading back to the marina, but came over in my direction when he saw me. It was close to my turnaround time anyway so I decided to just head back with him. We were only headed back for a couple of minutes when we saw the dolphins playing near the bow of the Lexington. We never seemed to be able to catch up with them. Once we crossed the ship channel they just seemed to disappear. We floated along the side of the channel for a few minutes hoping they would reappear, but no such luck. We paddled on inside the breakwater towards the put-in a little over a mile away. About half-way there John spotted a dolphin again. I did not see it and just continued to paddle slowly in the direction I had been going. John stopped, trying to figure out where it had gone. I heard it surface right behind me. John's yell confirmed what I had heard. Suddenly it popped up right alongside me just to my left. Then a couple of seconds later it surfaced aggressively right in front of the kayak making a wave that rocked the kayak. Although we saw it at a distance several other times, it never came close again. We continued uneventfully back to the boat ramp. My luck held, and I got everything loaded without falling in the water or scratching my kayak on the concrete. It was just under a 2hr trip for me (John was out almost 4). Not many miles, but some great fun which I especially appreciated because of the lousy start. Hope you never have any bad trips. But just in case, remember bad trips can turn good. Mark 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. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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