Sometimes you forget what a wonderful place we have in Middle Harbour.
This morning as I was paddling between The Bluff and the bottom of the course there was a strange disturbance in the water that I could hear just off my bow. To my delight and surprise I turned around and there, not a metre from the shell, a dolphin breached, it’s beautiful back and dorsal fin slicing through the early morning just after sunrise and so close I could almost touch it.
Returning to the pontoon there was great excitement as two dolphins spent a good half hour breaching and swimming just off the pontoon. The school children and adults who witnessed this wonderful event were mesmerised. A truely fabulous experience. We should do as much as we can to ensure that the Harbour continues to be a place where these wonderful creatures can find a clean and safe environment.

On Sunday morning I had a similar experience… except it was a large (10-11 feet) Bull Shark. I was coming past the end of the boats at the entrance to Sailors Bay, and noticed a dorsal and tail fin doing small circles and figures of eight 30 feet off my stern. I watched for 2-3 minutes then realised that what I initally thought was a smaller 4-5 shark was much bigger…. so I decided to paddle gently away from it. It’s nothing really to be scared of, but it just is an amazing thing to see as a Pommie who’s only experience of scary things while rowing on the Thames has been dead bodies and used condoms.