Hitting the doldrums one time sailing near Bateman's Bay and a fin popping up next time me in the water.
Took me a minute or so to realise it was a dolphin. Took a lot longer to get the heart rate down.
Sure there are better stories out there........
On the old Sputnik 270 at Low Head in Tassie in mid 90's where the water wasn't very clear. Couldn't water start as wind dropped off and couldn't get back onto the board. Something hit me pretty hard in the leg, something living but didn't see it and couldn't feel the texture as had a full wetty on. With a surge of adrenaline managed to pump myself onto the board and limped straight back to shore. Have never been able to do that the self generated wind water start ever again.
Same thing happened to me a couple years ago in port Phillip bay. Just got back into sailing after a 30 year break on a $ 100 Dunger. Glorious day and some residual skill on a long reach into the middle of the bay when I saw in the distance birds divebombing into the water. So I just had to go have a look at what was going on. When I got there I noticed huge jelly fish ,hundreds of them and they were huge. Naturally I started to **** myself even knowing, hoping they were not the stinging kind. Quick tack , wobbly but dry , I realised I was miles from where I started from. No problem , sun shining 10 kts , That's when I saw a bloody big fish swim past me , right by my side , and it was as big as me and I'm big . That's when I hit a second gear of **** myself . It was playing with me for the next 10 minutes ,Mabee it was more than one but it was a dolphin . Even though I knew it was a dolphin I was still scared all alone that far out. Having said that it was one of the most memorable days of my life.
5 hours on the water in 25 Knots without food or water. totally stuffed. Last run my mast snaps 2KM from shore.
20 Mins trying to de-rig the snapped mast out of the sail with 1/2 metre chop. Once the sail is separated from the board, the board takes off on a wave faster than an olympic 50m winner. Tide takes me in the opposite direction.
No PDF, no board, sinking rig, arms cramped, no strength to swim 20m let alone 2KM. No sailors in my area.
Oh Sh#$%t.
I was obviously rescued to be writing this, by sheer luck. 1 more minute and I was a goner
I even wear a PDF in the shower these days
I meant a PFD, Don't think a PDF would be much help.
5 hours on the water in 25 Knots without food or water. totally stuffed. Last run my mast snaps 2KM from shore. 20 Mins trying to de-rig the snapped mast out of the sail with 1/2 metre chop. Once the sail is separated from the board, the board takes off on a wave faster than an olympic 50m winner. Tide takes me in the opposite direction. No PDF, no board, sinking rig, arms cramped, no strength to swim 20m let alone 2KM. No sailors in my area. Oh Sh#$%t. I was obviously rescued to be writing this, by sheer luck. 1 more minute and I was a goner I even wear a PDF in the shower these days
This exact thing happened to me, but I was windsurfing, and crossed over the center of the Humpback's back, it was two years ago. We knew there were whales in the area at the time, we could see them surface, but that's the only time you can really see them. It went under me like a submarine, slow, straight, and w/o any body movement that I could see. There must have been only about one meter of water between the bottom of my board and it's back, scared the fu(k out of me because there was no warning. Even though I knew it wasn't necessarily a lethal situation, I still had to go in and settle down a bit after that close encounter. It's hard to sail when you are trying to restart your heart.
Select to expand quoteMcSailing said..
5 hours on the water in 25 Knots without food or water. totally stuffed. Last run my mast snaps 2KM from shore.
20 Mins trying to de-rig the snapped mast out of the sail with 1/2 metre chop. Once the sail is separated from the board, the board takes off on a wave faster than an olympic 50m winner. Tide takes me in the opposite direction.
No PDF, no board, sinking rig, arms cramped, no strength to swim 20m let alone 2KM. No sailors in my area.
Oh Sh#$%t.
I was obviously rescued to be writing this, by sheer luck. 1 more minute and I was a goner
I even wear a PDF in the shower these days
about 15-18 yrs back sailing in offshore winds tendon snaps at noon time knowing that during this time most people have lunch and siesta's told a local to keep an eye on me but fell asleep as well .. was about 1 km out and struggled to keep the sail and board together and keep treading against the wind .. people couldn't see me because of the noontime glare but about an hour later an old fisherman happen to pass by and try towing me back to shore.. all of these took close to 3 hrs.. by the time it was done my upper body seemed pretty fried 
.. but in windsurfing this is fun and is part of the whole experience everyone will have one of these days 
Select to expand quoteMastbender said...
This exact thing happened to me, but I was windsurfing, and crossed over the center of the Humpback's back, it was two years ago. We knew there were whales in the area at the time, we could see them surface, but that's the only time you can really see them. It went under me like a submarine, slow, straight, and w/o any body movement that I could see. There must have been only about one meter of water between the bottom of my board and it's back, scared the fu(k out of me because there was no warning. Even though I knew it wasn't necessarily a lethal situation, I still had to go in and settle down a bit after that close encounter. It's hard to sail when you are trying to restart your heart.
Pretty much sums up my encounter word for word.
I sailed straight over the top of a whale and my legs went to jelly and I ended up falling on it. I doubt I got wet though as I was back on my board in about half a second! I turned and headed back to the beach before realising what a cool experience I was missing so turned and spent a while sailing near the whale watching it breach (albeit from a distance).
Living in Carnarvon in the late 90's and taught myself to sail 'cos it always blew its guts out. A couple of mate and i were sailing the flats and channels for some speed. So i've just come off a flat into a long channel and enjoying the view (turtles, shovelnose shark, small sharks and other fish) when all of a sudden there's this fargin fin at least knee high+ in front of me. I came across this monster (tiger shark..very common in that area) so fast i even frightened it so he suddenly took off and i turned to shallow water where in my mind he couldn't swim.... Would see sharks all the time while out fishing and sailing but when you're on top of one the size of a 14 foot dinghy it's funny how quickly your bowels relax 
Another time with same mate and i back in yr 2000 when a yanky aircraft carrier was in town (Perth) we decided to launch from south beach and sail out and around it. Wow that was a big boat. Anyhow heading back to land to Leighton beach, wind was fickle, a long way off shore, i'm kinda grovelling and now too much time to think about my environment and situation when a damn sealion pops up right beside my and blows all his air and looks at me as if to say "WTF" are you doin'?. Amazing how much stuff runs through your mind in half a second....and how your bowels relax 
All good memories though when looking back.
In the early days I'd sail anything anywhere. One summer I was longboarding in almost no wind on West Lakes when I noticed I was over a gigantic school of jellyfish. Hundreds of them, all about the size of a squash ball. Although the board was plenty floaty, something in me panicked and I stacked it right into the middle of them. I leapt back onto the board so quickly I barely got wet.
I was 17 in 1987 and sailing off Pinaroo Point in WA in a lazy SSW. Was about 500m offshore when from the corner of my eye I spotted what truly looked like a body floating in the water on their back! My guts dropped as my whole body basically when numb...
Turned out to be some poor bugger's full length steamer that must have blown off a boat. For one minute though, I had some serious thoughts that I was sharing the water with a 'floater'.
Can't remember what I did with the wetsuit but from memory it wasn't worth anything anyway.
mates .. I actually saw a dead water buffallo off the coast near the river inlet must have drowned during the floods it wasn't bloated yet but I freaked out thinking what a weird sight!
Sailing in Port Phillip bay in about 30kts SW, I saw a large hammerhead coming at me over the waves, crashed into it.
Fortunately it was a large inflatable blue one so I stuffed it under my boom and took it home for my kids. Probably blown off the beach down Frankston way
Enjoying a late Summer 15 knot seabreeze at Elwood yesterday with only a few guys out when I saw something in the water sort of half submerged, ended up just missing it by a meter and realized it was a dude with a mask and snorkel swimming. I was fully planning so would of ended really bad if my 40cm fin had hit him!
There was this one time....
I cruised past half a seal floating in the water...never saw the other half! 
This freaked me out, but I was not as freaked as the other bloke!
My Wife and I were on holidays in Bali, at Candidasa. Rather than paying the resort to take us up the coast to a"secret" beach we paid 1/10th to the dodgy fishermen down the road. After a couple of hours at the beach they asked us if we wanted to go across to the island a few KM offshore, sure we said. Jump into the longboat with the 4 of them and a really large live octopus they had just caught and started heading across to the island. All of a sudden we hear this whistle. They slow down and we look around and there it is , somebody in the water waving at us. Over we go and it is a guy is scuba gear, yelling and screaming in German. We help him on board and he is pretty emotional. After a few mins he calms down and we find out that he got dragged off from his group in the really strong current and the dive boat took off without him. When he tells us what dive boat it was the fishermen say.... "we know where it will be" and off we go.
10 mins later we come around the point of the island and there is the big dive boat sitting at anchor We off load our cargo and head back to Candidasa.
Freaked me out about how casual these guys were about it all, like it was a daily occurrence. If we had not come across him he would have ended up at Lombok, he was @#$%^ed. But how freaked out must he have been when he surfaced and went.... Scheisse, wo ist das boot?
The sight of fins coming out the surface always get you freaked. Still knowing 95% of the times would be dolphins, you can never be sure.
Many moons ago, sailing off Point Moore in Gero. Just came in and was standing on the beach and saw 2 cows running flat out onto the reef and then jumping in the water. The faces on the euros as they were coming out of the water questioning each other whether they had just seen a cow in the water or had spent to long in the sun was priceless.
Recently, sailing off coros in a winter front. Wind died so start swimming gear in. Fin pops up 10 or so meters in front of me. Happened to quick to see what it was so absoloutley crapped myself. Jumped on my board unsure of what to do. As I did the fin popped up a couple of meters to the right of me. Took me a couple of seconds to realize it was a dolphin!! It ended up swimming around me for a while so was pretty cool. Fin plus no wind is scary **** let me tell ya.
Bumped into mate at Dominos chatted through the window of his drivers side door blar ba ba he replys you here what happened to me ...i replyed na with that he leaned to passangers door, bit odd he was wearing a sarong he parted it to show me a healing wound from a broken fima after the lip of margret river broke his leg in half no **** staples were holding it all togeter from below tje knee to above the hip.....i got my pizza and it was wrong PS he still lives and breaths margrets at 10 foot 
Yes the wild life is freaky ..but he's something different .freaky .I sail with a couple of mates who have know each other for 30 years ,one 105 kg the other 98 kg ..they USE TO play chicken with each other when sailing ...until one day no one backed out .. I was about 50 metre back from one ..smash ....lots of .water spray .legs . Arms ..and a tangled mess ....mast .broken .and fin chops to both boards ..sail tears ..broken harness ..
lots of bruises ...end of a good session .for them......stupid ...but funny buggers ..
One fin good - two fins bad
Dolphins still give me a fright every time.
One day me and a mate were surfing when a fin when straight between us (we were about 2m apart). We hadn't seen any dolphins before this, so there's that 1st panic reaction of seeing a fin.
They also give me a flutter, when I'm blasting along. You see a fast moving object in the water out of the corner of your eye, then they turn slightly to the side (to see better) to check you out, hang around for a while with you then blast off. Makes you realise just how quick they (and other large things) are in the water and how slow you are.
A seal going under your board while you are surfing is also a good for a heart flutter.
And then there is the Southern Right Whales - The western Victorian coast line is littered with them from June to Oct. Mothers and calves just hanging around at the back of the break. I've had quite a few close calls. In a swell and wind chop they are quite had to see (there is no dorsal fin on SRW's) so you can come up on them quite quickly with out knowing it. They hear you coming and dive, however 9 out of 10 times they follow your line, then surface just in front of you and you almost hit them.
One of these days i'll end up hitting one, catapulting onto its back and going for a wild ride.
^^^ You're right there KJ, I have several stories about whales down this way that many wouldn't believe. I did have a mother leave her calf & swim straight at me and a LBer when SUPing at Cape Bridgewater a couple of years ago. It got within about 1m from us and we had already turned thinking that she saw us as a threat. She gave us a look, then turned & swam back to her calf.
A mate and I also witnessed a swimmer nearly head-butt a big whale last year in shallow water at our main beach. I'm not sure which one got the biggest fright, but the whale spun fast & nearly clocked him with her tail.
Re; fins...
tail fins flapping up & down = good
weaving sideways = not so good.
Select to expand quotesav911 said..
Sailing in Port Phillip bay in about 30kts SW, I saw a large hammerhead coming at me over the waves, crashed into it.
Fortunately it was a large inflatable blue one so I stuffed it under my boom and took it home for my kids. Probably blown off the beach down Frankston way
Bloody Port Phillip Bay hammerheads.
Dolphins saying hello still scare the **** out of me! Year's ago in the Canaries it was common to be sailing with Hammerheads in the waves on Lobos, but it was a reserve! What really scared the **** out of one of the guys was when he fell off on the way over to Lobos and he was standing up! He landed on some sort of ray.
The thing that freaked me out the most is when I got attacked by a shark whilst climbing a ladder to my private helicopter. Lucky I had some batman shark repellent and that saved the day
Lying on my surfboard waiting for a wave I glimpsed a fin out the corner of my eye. I scanned around and saw a grey shape under the surface rocketing towards me. It got to the side of my board and a baby dolphin stick it's head out of the water and went "Ee! Ee!" then dived under and chased after its mum. 
Select to expand quoteImax1 said..
I now know...
up down fin = good
side side fin = BAD !
Also the thickness, sometimes the dolphin or shark aren't swimming, but just basking there.
Sharks have skinny dorsals, dolphins are fatties.
Seals, don't discount them, they are not all friendly.
I was surfing one day, just sitting on the board waiting for waves when a seal swam up to me to have a look. He surfaced just off the nose of my board, so I just sat there and started to talk to him, and no, I don't remember what I said, but it must have been something bad. He just stayed right in front of me, watching and listening to me, then moved up to the nose of my board and bit the crap out of it, leaving big canine teeth holes in my board, and swam off. The bastard!!!!! Ruined my day, had to go right in with a wounded board.
About 2km out into the Pacific. Beautiful day. 20 knot sea breaze and a sweet setup. Having a ball.
So I muff a gybe out "there" and of course the rig goes straight down, and then goes under that board and all that what-not. So I'm going to be water starting in a minute or so when everything finally gets itself sorted, against the current and yada-yada. I bide my time until the rig comes back up.
And then, not 10m from me a ****ing "PPPFFFFSSSSSSHTTTT!!!!" goes off and it's fn loud and I feel like me heart has stopped and started like it's doing the bus stop and I'm so fn shocked, and frankly scared half to death (I believe that's somewhere around Tamworth) I **** me pants and look to me starboard to see...
... a Russian submarine surfacing.
Now, you might ask me how I know it was a Russian submarine, them being usually all black and secretive and such, but there was a clear hammer and sickle "resplendent' and "proud" against its dark, submariner, somewhat whale-like exterior, behemoth-like hull. And, this hammer and sickle in amongst the particularly threatening "PPPFFFFSSSSSSHHHHTTT!!!" made itself loud and clear what it was, even though it (obviously) made no obvious, conscious sense whatsoever. (!)
"WFT?!", I believe is the nomenclature of our time.
The top unscrews, slowly, its cool steel making a metallic sliding sound against the corkscrew mechanism. And, it, pops, off. Splash.
Then, a cork bottle, and then another ("pop-pop") and two, beautiful girls wearing nothing but russian, fur hats emerge out of the submarine. Smiling. Somewhat seductively I might say.
And about this time I say to meself: "EP haven't you been drinking all night? And haven't you been given little "treats" by whatever lithe young creatures have been professionally drinking with you? Naked? And haven't you and your friends been eating/drinking/smoking peyote while you are mountain climbing in Nepal?"
We had been. It was all in my tent at only 15,000 ft. We were having a ball.
