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........

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.

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

McSailing 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

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.

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.

I love this thread it so like "this one time in band camp"

There was this one time....

I cruised past half a seal floating in the water...never saw the other half!

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.

I now know...
up down fin = good
side side fin = BAD !

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 ..

^^^ 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.

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.

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.

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.