Breakfast with dolphins

dylanwinter

dylanwinter

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www.keepturningleft.co.uk
I was sailing in an area sometimes referred to as the Moray - we had an early start from Inver Bar and left a place called Dornoch and out into a place called Moray just close to a place called Tarbet. We were drifting along the coast - about two knots and we were joined by three dolphins. They stayed with us for around 20 minutes.

There are only two wild creatures I know of which actively seek out humans for reasons other than food - Robins and Dolphins. I have looked up the tail slapping behaviour - I am not sure if they were slapping at us or at each other.

please note the low(ish) carb breakfast.

 
Redfox226 said:
dylan - just had a quick google, and this lot http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/dolphinsmart/pdfs/behavior_factsheet.pdf seem to think that tail slapping is 'disturbance behaviour' - however your Dolphins didn't seem at all perturbed - on the contrary quite relaxed! Wonderful as usual!
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I have also seen that but I have also seen that it is a sign to each other as a preliminary to sex.

Bull seals will tail slap at us in an aggressive way which seems to suggest that we are not welcome in their patch

this did not appear to be aggressive.

The area is well seeded with lovely long floaty ropes and incredibly small floats designed to snag props - such as this one on the Forth



so I am sure they are used to lots of boat activity in their patch
 
Breakfast looks tasty.

There is a story about the French bloke who eventually founded Greenpeace. When he was racing round the world in the first singlehanded race, he was somewhere south of Tasmania I think heading Northwards again. The Dolphins/Porpoises whatever, followed him for days always dashing across his bow from port to starboard. IIRC they also slapped their tails. As the days went on this behaviour appeared to be getting frantic and it made him wonder. He checked his position and was heading straight for a dangerous offshore reef. He altered course, cleared the reef and never saw them again. Because of this he left the race, headed to some paradise islands and coalesced the thoughts and founded Greenpeace. I am sure my recollections of the tale are flawed, but that is the gist of it. Were you in shallow water heading towards and foundering and the dolphins were trying to save you?
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
Breakfast looks tasty.

There is a story about the French bloke who eventually founded Greenpeace. When he was racing round the world in the first singlehanded race, he was somewhere south of Tasmania I think heading Northwards again. The Dolphins/Porpoises whatever, followed him for days always dashing across his bow from port to starboard. IIRC they also slapped their tails. As the days went on this behaviour appeared to be getting frantic and it made him wonder. He checked his position and was heading straight for a dangerous offshore reef. He altered course, cleared the reef and never saw them again. Because of this he left the race, headed to some paradise islands and coalesced the thoughts and founded Greenpeace. I am sure my recollections of the tale are flawed, but that is the gist of it. Were you in shallow water heading towards and foundering and the dolphins were trying to save you?
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there you have it... they were warning me about the dangerous pot markers and were concerned that my boat might get snagged.

Clearly is shows that they are really dum and anyone can see that Katie L is unsnaggable with her centre plate, outboard and kick up rudder. I laugh in the face of pot markers
 
dylanwinter said:
There are only two wild creatures I know of which actively seek out humans for reasons other than food - Robins and Dolphins.
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Surely the robins are after food. It's been suggested that when there were still lots of wild boar they would get followed around for the same reason. We are just boring substitutes, in spades...

Mike.
 
mjcoon said:
Surely the robins are after food. It's been suggested that when there were still lots of wild boar they would get followed around for the same reason. We are just boring substitutes, in spades...

Mike.
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not sure about that -

Robins are territorial - with other birds as well as other robins

You could see that they might hang around when you are digging but they always seem to be nearby whenever I am outside

always willing to be wrong on all matters natural

D
 
Re pot bouys and long ropes. On a flat calm day west of Skye I was motoring to drop off some walkers. Cue one of walkers - a non-sailor - to say 'why is that big red bouy following us?' And it was, too, just like in Jaws. Slams throttle closed and am mightily relieved to find rope still either side of fin, not yet reached prop. We were in 90m of water: if there was a lobster in that pot, he must have got the most incredible awakening from chomping on smelly mackerel bait to doing 6 kts vertically upwards, in no time flat!:)
 
I have had many encounters with dolphins, always fascinating, and the one that remains with a question mark was last year on the SIPR beating in the dark and murk out the Sound of Jura. We had tacked just off the west coast of Gigha and were heading south to pass inside Càth Sgeir, a small reef where the depth goes from >40m to nasty almost instantly. The reef is marked by a west cardinal but we were on the east side. It was then that a pod of dolphins appeared, not sure how many but at least half a dozen, and they kept crossing the bow from right to left, passing astern and then crossing again. There is another wee rock about a cable south of Càth Sgeir with charted depth of 2.1m (there is very little tidal range in those waters) and it was only when we were passed that the dolphins disappeared. Were these distant cousins of Pelorus Jack? Was it coincidence?
 
awol said:
I have had many encounters with dolphins, always fascinating, and the one that remains with a question mark was last year on the SIPR beating in the dark and murk out the Sound of Jura. We had tacked just off the west coast of Gigha and were heading south to pass inside Càth Sgeir, a small reef where the depth goes from >40m to nasty almost instantly. The reef is marked by a west cardinal but we were on the east side. It was then that a pod of dolphins appeared, not sure how many but at least half a dozen, and they kept crossing the bow from right to left, passing astern and then crossing again. There is another wee rock about a cable south of Càth Sgeir with charted depth of 2.1m (there is very little tidal range in those waters) and it was only when we were passed that the dolphins disappeared. Were these distant cousins of Pelorus Jack? Was it coincidence?
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yes it was a coincidence
 
There could be several explanations for the tail slapping, but I'm pretty certain that, on some occasions at least, it is a form of interaction with humans where their behaviour looks as though it is choreographed. Quite often they'll start by diving across the bow, and then do more complicated manaouvres like pairs simultaneously jumping across the bows from different sides. Once they know they have your attention, they'll swim and jump backwards showing off their white bellies. Oh, the splashing; on occasion I'm sure they are deliberately trying to splash you.

We had a pod follow us the other day for about twenty minutes in the Sound of Rum. This lot seemed to avoid direct eye contact while out of the water, but they did a bunch of tricks then sodded off when they got bored. Bloody attention seekers if you ask me.
 
Coming originally from the southern hemisphere as I do, we all know (down there) that dolphins can do amazing things. I remember that there was something on the telly about every week about how catastrophe was averted by certain dolphins, one came to be known as "Flipper" I think. These creatures listened to the news, figured out which were marine items and where they could intervene, and turned up as if on cue to save the day. They saved drowning kids, steered errant navigators round rocks, retrieved lost overboard items, and much more.
They splash humans in a friendly way, squeak and squeal their calls, backflip in delight and so on.
But I never heard of them making such a breakfast as seems available on Katie L
 
MM5AHO said:
Coming originally from the southern hemisphere as I do, we all know (down there) that dolphins can do amazing things. I remember that there was something on the telly about every week about how catastrophe was averted by certain dolphins, one came to be known as "Flipper" I think. These creatures listened to the news, figured out which were marine items and where they could intervene, and turned up as if on cue to save the day. They saved drowning kids, steered errant navigators round rocks, retrieved lost overboard items, and much more.
They splash humans in a friendly way, squeak and squeal their calls, backflip in delight and so on.
But I never heard of them making such a breakfast as seems available on Katie L
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I think you may be onto something here

the tail slapping was probably dolphin speak in an attempt to tell Jill that the eggs are best eaten sunny side down
 
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