Today my family and I traveled down to Lewes to spend the day with my
boss, who had invited us down to his place on the beach. It was a
lovely day punctuated by many sailboats out in breakwater harbor and the
lower reaches of the bay (more ocean than bay). At any rate, my boss
had his Sunfish out on the beach and he offered it to me for use. I
snapped up the offer and headed out with my sailing buddy Rachel along
with me. She sat on the bow with her legs wrapped around the stub mast
while I took care of business in the cockpit. My attention was drawn to
two other Sunfish coming up fast from behind, both turning to come to
parallel courses to mine. A race! I started to gear myself up for this
when Rachel (who had been assigned whale watching duty) erupted from the
bow "Daddy! Daddy! Look at them! You won't believe it!"
I turned my attention back forward in time to see around 7-10 Bottlenose
Dolphin cruising in our general direction. Shortly after seeing them, I
realized that they were all around us, about 30 in all. Rachel was in
7th heaven, doing her best to get into the water with them (while I was
bellowing for her to stay on the boat!). At one point, 3 males with one
particularly large one in the middle cruised over to us. From a
distance of about 30', they surfaced and the big male surfed for a few
moments, looking at us. They disappeared again and resurfaced not 10'
from us with the big male once again surfing to get a good look at us.
Rachel and I made eye contact with him and that moment was frozen in
time. He surfed to within 3' of the boat and then disappeared and
passed underneath us, looking like a gray torpedo as he literally flew
underneath us and resurfaced 20' away and continued in another
direction. We sailed in the midst of them for 15-20 minutes and it was
so special. There were 3 other boats in our vicinity and all of them
were sailboats no larger than the Sunfish we were on. None of us on the
sailboats talked or hailed each other, but there was unspoken
communication as we all moved in the rhythms set by our waterborne
friends. I do not say this lightly when I relate that it was not unlike
a water ballet as we all moved delicately and QUIETLY among the
Dolphins, unobtrusive and maintaining distance while letting them make
the choices of where they wanted to be and related. Too soon, it was
over. It ended when a Bayliner came roaring up from near the breakwater
and attempted to get in our midst at top speed.. I said nothing but
just shook my head and tacked for the shore. The dolphins immediately
gathered together and headed out to sea at high speed, away from us.
The other two skippers were fiery in their remarks to the powerboater
and I left them to their own devices. In a way, I was angry about it
too, but what was done was done. I kept my cool ONLY because I saw the
two children on the Bayliner, elbows over the rail, straining to get a
glimpse of these wonderful, special creatures. They were denied to some
extent by some boneheaded piloting of the individual at the helm.
Aside from that, it was a wonderful day, good sailing, and today, Rachel
and I looked into the eyes of a creature that looked back at us from the
water with obvious, patient, and understanding intelligence. How can
you not be moved by such a thing?
As a side note, this area of Delaware Bay is one of the highest in
regular Dolphin sightings. It has the potential for a group-sail for
those who have a desire to see these special creatures. However, as it
is pretty much sailing in Delaware Bay AND the Atlantic Ocean, you must
take precautions and be prepared for both uneven and broken (also steep)
chop as well as rolling swells. The Potters are able to handle this,
but some skippers might be a bit unnerved by it. Also, it can be quite
unnerving to come upon a creature that is nearly the size of your boat
(and in some respects LARGER than your boat, as Pilot Whales like to
travel in company with the Bottlenose Dolphins in our area) so it is
wise to be prepared for the shock of this. You are right on the water
level at times with them when you factor in swells, so while it sounds
so wonderful to be sailing in the company of these creatures, you must
take into consideration their size and the fact that they are wild
creatures.
Let me provide an example from today. There were originally four
sailboats with us. There was an older gentleman with I assume was his
grandson on another Sunfish and when they saw us heading for the
Dolphins, they followed suit. What happened next could have been a
tragedy but for the grace of God. At any rate, when he got close enough
to a group of about 6 or 7 dolphins, he panicked and came about
suddenly, nearly throwing himself and his grandson out of the boat.
They got the mainsheet hung up around the rudder and were several
seconds trying to get things straightened out. We were close enough to
them that I could see his face and it was sheer panic. I played out the
main, thinking that we'd probably have to lend assistance in very short
order but he straightened it out and made a beeline for the beach. When
we came back in after a while, he was down by where Michele and my boss
were, talking to a Hobie cat sailor. I asked him if everything was ok
and he said yes, but that he didn't realize that the dolphins were so
big and that he was shaken by how close on the water level he was with
them. I could understand this; it does take your breath away at fist
when you realize their size and whatnot. So, exercise caution, make
yourself mentally prepared for what you will encounter, and then relax
while still sailing safely and have fun!
-- See ya!--Lars S. Mulford, President East Coast Potter Association (ECPA) Come visit us at http://members.tripod.com/~SpeedSailor "Forgive, and live. Life is worth the challenge of living." --LSSM