This past Sunday, the Longhair and I received an invite to go and look for Dolphins and a Sardine Run Bait Ball (or two or three) in Algoa Bay.
We met Rainer and Silke from Expert Tours at the entrance to the Noordhoek Ski Boat Club at 6:30 am – one of the parties was on time, but we will not say which one! Accompanying Rainer and Silke was Manfred – a retired armaments expert from Germany.
The Noordhoek Ski Boat Club is experiencing explosive growth in membership lately (Yes, those ‘boat houses’ are legal – so please don’t start that again!). We would see just how popular Noordhoek is on our return from our journey to sea. Now the Longhair and I are used to a much more sedate form of ocean going transport but were very glad to return to the sea nontheless.
We launched in a heavy sea mist and motored slowly south-east for around 5 kilometres – just free of the Noordhoek headland and directly into the path of any Dolphins that may be making their way towards Bird Island or along the coast with the sardines to feast on their required 15 to 25 kilograms of nutrition a day.
With the mist all around and no landmarks to be seen the sense of being alone is heightened along with your other senses listening for splashes and boats which may come roaring towards you trailing tendrils of mist and headed for disaster. It was just after we realised that SOMEONE had not packed the lovely sarmies that I had prepared that we heard the unmistakable rush and splash of hundreds, if not thousands of commons dolphins on a mission across the ocean – the chase was on as we accelerated to keep up with these magnificent playful creatures, who gambolled in the bow wave and wake of the Expert Tours rubber duck at 22 knots and over.
One could almost see the playful glint in their eyes as each dolphin powered up to starboard or port of the duck, leaped out of the water to measure the speed and bow wave and then accelerated toward the front of the duck, felt the push of the bow wave, leapt away and made space for the next powerful pulsating dolphin eager to show us mere mortals that we would be completely out of our depth in the depths of the ocean.
This continued for 25 kilometres as we raced across the bay. At that point the pod made a sudden change in direction towards the open sea and raced away almost as if in terror – according to Rainer, Orca had been seen in the area and the behaviour of the dolphins was indicative of being spooked by marauding Orca. Soon the dolphins were back on their mission and winging their way across Algoa Bay again with Gannets, Gulls, Skua and even Albatross in hot pursuit of the gang.
Past Coega and almost three quarters of the way to Bird Island the feeding began with sea birds hurtling into the water to pick up scraps and fish driven to the surface. As quickly as each bait ball formed so the dolphins were off to form the next one and we saw three form one after the other until the dolphins just disappeared leaving confused sea birds bobbing on the surface wailing for their mates to come back.
Then it was time to start for home which initially happened at a leisurely pace as we, too, waited for some more dolphin action – as we crossed the sea lane from Coega with a Oil Rig on it’s way out we were treated to one of the rarest sights in Algoa Bay as two Sperm Whales surfaced and, surprised to see humans and an oil rig ‘hemming them in’ quickly dove again.
After spotting these huge denizens of the deep we picked up one of the smaller ones – a turtle looking quite cold and full of algae. A bit of a rest in a warm spot on the boat and the baby turtle looked much better swimming away after being placed back in some warmer water.
Where else in South Africa can one cover more than 100 kilometres in an open bay and see such a variety of wildlife? On top of that you can do that all AND be back in time for Sunday Lunch!
Quite a day on the water was capped with a three course meal at the Noordhoek Ski Boat Club which was packed with people in the pub, on the verandah and braaing away on the open ground with a safe paddling beach for the kids and dogs galore in the bright sunshine.
Alan Straton
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