Wildest encounter

I see a lot of wildlife every time i sail (osprey dolphins, some turtles, manatees, etc), but the scariest for me has to be shark related.

a few years ago ...
on a friday night, around dusk, (no other boats around) i noticed a shark fin surface between me and a sand bar we call Island 3. I made note of it, raised my trapeze system a few inches ... and kept sailing.

end of day saturday, i capsized within 1/4 mile of that exact spot ... around the same time of dusk. I had JUST detailed my boat and put on 10 coats of newglassed on my hulls. I slipped off the hulls at least 1/2 dozen times trying to get my righting gear all in place.

before i even got my righting gear set, a jet skier came buy and i talked him into jumping off his ski, and hanging with me on my hulls.

i didn't tell him about the shark ...

Plenty of spontaneous dolphin shows over the years. Maybe the most annoying was the massive migration of moon jellyfish I encountered a couple of years ago. They were so large and plentiful you could hear them thumping the bow and boards and kept kicking up the rudders.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/20/us-jellyfish-gulf-idUSTRE78J5PX20110920

Jellyfish Gone Wild

Dolphins right between the bows and on the sides close enough to touch... Had a seal jump out of the water; must been sunning himself, hit the mast and then rolled off the back of the boat... Scared the Bejesus out of us and there was a strong muskie smell we could not get rid of for a few hours.. Poor thing looked at us with those huge eyes during the whole five second encounter. Probably just as scared! Another time we were right in the middle of some sea lions chasing down some fish. And had a brown pelican following us about 3 feet astern about 4 feet off the ocean for about a mile...Must have been catching some stable air or drafting from our wake, or was hoping for a hand out..

Saw a whale breach, but is was too far away to be classified as a close encounter..

We have some incredible wildlife where I am at and that is now why I have a Go Pro! But you watch, according to the laws of physics...I'll never see another creature again as long as I have that thing turned on!

Edited by JohnES on Aug 22, 2013 - 05:33 PM.

A lot of wildlife in the DE bay, so too many up close encounters with Dolphin to relay all, but every single time it happens it is incredible. I love it when they roll up beside the boat and you can almost touch them and their big old eye!
A blast watching bald eagle do an acrobatic dogfight with two osprey for the fish the osprey had - the eagle won - after about a 6 minute battle
A lot of skate, which are so much fun to straddle with the cat and watch them slap the top of the water as we fly over them
The best though was having an 18" striped bass hop into my kayak - completely startled me as I was taking a catnap after a couple mile paddle and had another couple miles to go

DamonLinkous wrote: Plenty of spontaneous dolphin shows over the years. Maybe the most annoying was the massive migration of moon jellyfish I encountered a couple of years ago. They were so large and plentiful you could hear them thumping the bow and boards and kept kicking up the rudders.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/20/us-jellyfish-gulf-idUSTRE78J5PX20110920

Jellyfish Gone Wild

Hanging with the Jellies.....

http://vimeo.com/8402214

I remember sailing out of the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay with a whole school of Cow Nosed Rays. I've had a Dolphin escort in Currituck Sound. I hear there are 8' Bull Sharks in the mouth of the Potomac. I hope to miss those.

sailed by an alligator right in front of ocean springs yacht club...I thought it was fake! he wasn't fazed...he was only about 5 feet long though. kids swimming within 50 yards, busy day on the beach.

saw a 7-8' shark jump out of the water and spin like crazy...no idea what that's about...

oh, and a small sea turtle in the channel in front of the secret spot during the gulf oil spill...never seen one that close to shore before.

Dolphin, Turtles, Manta rays(Under the boat with a wing tip out of the water on either side, one big ray), sharks(there have been a lot of those this year off Daytona beach), and gators(some very big gators on Lake Monroe). But the most "interesting" was the 3 ft gar that jumped up in between the hulls and bounced off the lower part of the mast. We were sitting on the tramp and thought it was going to end up in out laps.

i heard a story where a huge devil ray jumped onto a h18 and it was stuck on the deck... flopping around like mad.... lucky for the skipper he had wings on the boat and didn't get trashed by the giant

beachsailor wrote: But the most "interesting" was the 3 ft gar that jumped up in between the hulls and bounced off the lower part of the mast.

As in Alligator Gar or Mediterranean Gar (Needlefish)?

Edited by klozhald on Aug 23, 2013 - 12:30 PM.

Manatee popped up my rudder.

Alligator Gar.

beachsailor wrote: But the most "interesting" was the 3 ft gar that jumped up in between the hulls and bounced off the lower part of the mast. We were sitting on the tramp and thought it was going to end up in out laps.

OMGosh!
I would have creamed my jeans at that one!

My only encounter is some dolphins between the bows

coastrat wrote:
saw a 7-8' shark jump out of the water and spin like crazy...no idea what that's about...

Sounds like a spinner shark.. there are videos of them on youtube, pretty odd behavior.

When I was working in Costa Rica we had a pregnant lady on the boat (36 McGreggor). A pod of dolphins came up and a mother rolled over lifting her new calf with her flipper for us to see. We hove to and a few ppl got in the water, the dolphins hung around for a while before going on their way. I've had other encounters but that was by far the Kewlest!!

Recently I had about 4 or 5 dolphins swimming alongside and under the boat. That was in destin. Funny part was some friends of ours were down in destin and that same day they payed to go on one of the dolphin tours. But sadly saw no dolphins

Other than an occasional spoonbill jumping in front of the boat the best "encounter" we've had was several years ago. My wife and I were coming back to the beach out in the middle of our lake flying the hull. Out ahead of us was this ski boat just bobbing. As we got closer we could see that the couple on the boat had the seats folded down and were going at it like a couple of mid-70's porn stars! Finally at about 20 ft the guy heard my jib rattle and as we flew the hull right over the bow of his boat he rolled them both over onto the floor. As we passed by we looked back to see two heads peeking over the side of the boat. They managed a feeble wave. Talk about coitus interruptus! We were laughing so hard my stomach hurt for two days!

Lots of dolphins, however I hit something hard enough to kick up both rudders, happen to look down right when it happen, massive grey shark. I made sure I did not capsize that afternoon. :-O This was about 1/4 mile inside Clearwater pass.

A few years ago we launched the Hobie 16 thru the hole in the mangroves between Fish Vill and the boat club. About 100 yards off the shore in 3 feet of water is a row of old pilings just below the surface. As we came in I saw what looked like a big rock 3-4 feet long, but not where the pilings are. It looked ok to sail over it, so I kept cruising along. When I got about a boat length away, I noticed that was yellow and brown in a mottled pattern and looked more like a fish than a rock. When It got between the hulls, 300 pounds of Goliath Grouper came alive. He got turned around while underneath the tramp and lifted the boat up a few inches. He then proceeded to haul ass away from us leaving a wake.

Goliath's normally live around structure, reefs, bridges and docks in deeper water. I think that he was traveling between feeding grounds.

you think he was here for just the day? 🙂

I made sure I did not capsize that afternoon.

I have seen more bull sharks caught in our waters than any other shark recently...

In the summer of 1999 I was in Oman for work, when the work was done I had to wait for my flight back to Amsterdam over the weekend. A local sailor invited me to join their annual Laser regatta at their expat yacht-club.
To get myself familiar with the dinghy I borrowed a Laser standard from a friendly local sailor. Set sail friday-afternoon and had a good time. Just when I was about to turn back, was quit far out at sea, a big shadow slid under
the dinghy. Moments later a dark grey fin popped up alongside me. The shark was almost twice the size of the dinghy, and never ever I felt more scared in my whole life. I eased the main and gently sailed back to the club, making sure not to make any sudden moves or noises. The shark did swim alongside the dinghy for 2 or 3 minutes, although it seemed like a lifetime to me. Back at the club the owner told me he forgot to tell me not to go the direction I went, it was called shark's cliff.... he grinned.
Although it was not on a beachcat, it is still one of the scariest moments in my sailing-life..

André