I was out a bit too early this morning at Rosevears. Where I live, the mud flats are a problem at low tide, so I went out at about 11:30am. The wind was still a bit too light on, but it really kicked in nicely a bit after midday, and I ended up having a great sail.
However, when the wind was still quite light and I was just about to give up, I saw two seals frolicking in the middle of the river. I headed straight for them and got to within about 3 metres. They were just rolling and playing (I know nothing of seal behaviour, but I would guess they might have even been courting - it was rather odd behaviour to me). They didn't seem to mind me and glanced at me briefly, then completely ignored me and just kept frolicking about.
Made my day! :-)
I've seen them here before. Nearly ran right over one once a few years ago. It dived just before I hit it (I hadn't seen it until the last moment). That was the same day a fish jumped out of the water and landed on my board.
When Rustbucket was floating there with his busted base plate a few weeks back he said something brushed past his leg underwater. That also happened to be the day before they found the body of the unfortunate missing Indian student nearby in the river. Seal, log, body?
I heard reports of a whale in the river near Lanena a few years back.