Your most amazing aquatic experience?

Way back when I was in my mid teens my grand dad sent me to a YMCA sponsored camp in Ontario Canada. The base camp was ~600 miles due north of Cleveland Ohio and included several islands on lake Temagami. but we were usually out on canoe trips. The last year I went we went with group of twelve and followed the same route as the Hudson Bay Explorers. This was a canoe trip of about 750 miles. Our end of trip was James Bay which is an inlet of Hudson Bay at the mouth of the Moose River.

There was a sand bar across the mouth of the river. Beluga whales would come in to the river when it was high tide. One Beluga was a bit late getting back out of the river and got stuck on the sand bar. We rolled the beastie off the sand bar and got it free. Amazing critters! We camped on an island that was in the river's mouth but near to the town of Moosonee. We were using 12 foot canvas covered canoes with river keels. Beluga's are also about 12 feet and like to play. Trust me when I say that when you are nudged by 12 feet of solid muscle when you are in a canoe you know that you have been nudged.

Dang! I could tell so many stories from that trip such as one of our camp sights being investigated by a pack of Timber Wolves but will refrain unless someone requests stories.

Timber wolf story needed.

GaryE said:

Timber wolf story needed.

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OK even if it isn't aquatic. Well there IS a waterfall.

Same trip as above. We were camped at the top of a waterfall that was at an angle, not straight down. There were a lot of huge bolders that made for a great natural spa. Also caused a lot of mist when it cooled off at night. Couldn't ask for a better scene for a visit from wolves.

We were all in our tents when we heard a bit of a ruckus. First thought was we're going to get eaten by a bear. We peek out and there were six or seven wolves just checking things out. Absolutely beautiful creatures. It was the middle of summer and they were well fed so no real danger as long as we stayed in the tents. Someone started tossing pebbles in their area and the things were as playful as could be pouncing on the pebbles like puppies. They stuck around for a bit and then just left to go about their business. I don't think any of us slept the rest of the night. In the morning we must have set a record for breaking camp and getting back on the water. It was really cool but frightening at the same time.

My first trip around Cape Scott in a kayak. We left Nissan Bight in < 1meter seas (easy sea state) and traveled west to the cape. Along the way we picked up a pack of sea lions that followed us right to the cape, we also passed by a number of grey whales feeding off the bottom of the ocean. Just before the cape we encountered a raft of sea otters. The last 2 nautical miles to the cape were one of the best paddles I have ever had in regards to the amount of wildlife, in addition to the sea mammals it was the first place I remember seeing rhinoceros auklets.

We then got to see the cape itself. The current going past the cape was stronger than expected, flowing in our direction East to West. The problem from our point was the wind was blowing in the opposite direction to the current building up to set of standing waves with the largest appearing 3 meters tall, likely 2 meters in reality, with only a minor break on the largest wave tops. This was beyond our experience at the time. We looked south to Experiment Bight to see if we could land there and wait for the conditions to improve, but the waves appeared to be breaking quite strongly. It's not fun to land a loaded kayak in surf so we maintained our position before the cape to consider our options.

In the end we decided to run past the cape, the current was in our direction and if things got bad we expected that once past the point the conditions would mellow out. Both of us attached our tow bags to our boats to prevent us getting separated from our boats if we capsized and lost grip on our boats. We were getting close to the actual cape while this was happening when we noticed red blotches in the water. There was another group of Sealions right at the cape feeding on the salmon running past the cape. Occasionally the sealions would throw the salmon up in the air to catch them again before gulping down the large pieces of salmon. We were so focused on the sealions eating the salmon that we really didn't notice the large waves. We have since learned that big unbreaking waves are easy to navigate but you need a compass because you cannot always see the shore.

The day finished with an easy paddle through small boomers (partially submerged rocks) and a number of small harbour seals, we then paddled into Guise bay to camp for the night. We had to spend three nights at Guise bay before continuing due to strong storm system.

The trip wasn't the scariest, but it had some tense moments, balanced with exceptional wildlife viewing opportunities was one of my most memorable paddles.

Sounds like an awesome venture.

We enjoyed the whole trip so much that for the next 15 years we did at least one two week trip on the outer coast of Vancouver Island each year. We have slowed down in the last two years due to health issues but we still go out occasionally.

Way back in the late 1960's we went on a family vacation to Seattle to visit relatives and got to go see the captive Killer Whale Namu. We watched the show and then I was wandering around looking at other stuff and went down a stairwell into a long dark hall and found a big window. I couldn't see anything and had my face pressed right against the glass trying to see what was in there when Namu swam by in all his glory and I looked straight into a huge eyeball. Scared the living pee-wads out of me and it was all I could do to unfreeze myself and get out of there.

Uberhoust said:

We enjoyed the whole trip so much that for the next 15 years we did at least one two week trip on the outer coast of Vancouver Island each year. We have slowed down in the last two years due to health issues but we still go out occasionally.

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When we did that Hudson Bay trip I was 15 or 16 and in really good shape. Today, at 68, I doubt that I could still do it though I would like to go back up to visit some other areas. Shoot, there is a 2 mile portage off the north west arm of Lake Temagami that goes to two little puddle jump lakes called Skunk and Gull Lakes. You would toss back 3.5 pound small mouth bass.

The north east arm has a small portage of like 50 yards or less to Diamond Lake. The area at one time was a lumber camp and, when I was there, there were still broken down logging cabins and a log shoot going from Temagami to Diamond Lake. Apparently after years of logs going down the shoot it formed a deeper 'hole' on the Diamond Lake end. You would pull 20+ pound Northern Pike out of the hole. BTW, with Northern Pike being an oily fish it makes awesome cream based chowder.

Sadly even though I loved my three summers in Northern Ontario it sort of ruined a lot of seafood for me. Fish from a restaurant or store just doesn't taste right to me. I got spoiled by fish going from the water to filleted to a pan. Take small mouth bass. Straight from the water it has a lemony taste to the meat. Even on ice it will lose that flavor in a couple of hours.

One regret I have is that there was talk about doing the Hudson Bay trip again but in the winter with snow mobiles. It never happened which is likely a good thing but I would have been all in. One of the big problems was logistics for fuel drops. It would have been VERY expensive. Another problem was school and safety as we were all teens except for one adult.

Never been to the Hudson Bay area but some of my friends have and said it was very interesting. On your trips were you far enough north to see polar bears?

Back in the fold said:

living pee-wads

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Don't know what a living pee-wad is but it doesn't sound good.

jaylach said:

Sadly even though I loved my three summers in Northern Ontario it sort of ruined a lot of seafood for me. Fish from a restaurant or store just doesn't taste right to me. I got spoiled by fish going from the water to filleted to a pan. Take small mouth bass. Straight from the water it has a lemony taste to the meat. Even on ice it will lose that flavor in a couple of hours.

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For saltwater fishing I take a hand line on my long kayak trips. I usually get to areas that are not fished normally, if I drop a line down I expect at least a bite. I once caught a halibut the first meal was great, we didn't want to waste it so we ate halibut every meal for three days. I don't like halibut anymore. When I fish in the salt chuck and I catch a big fish I let them go now. All I want is one meal. Fresh fish is always a treat.

I've had a heart attack and got one hip replaced and was still kayaking, but it is catching up to me. I am waiting to get my other hip replaced, if I sit in the boat for more than 2 hrs it causes a lot of pain. The heart attack also kind of messed things up for me, I don't quite have enough energy to push through surf, which limits where I can land now.

My big regret was my dad and I were going to do a short canoe trip through Bowron lakes in central BC, I think I could still do it, but my dad wouldn't be able to anymore, he is well into his 80s.

Nope, never saw a polar bear. LOL! Not sure that I'd want to see one at least not close enough to where I didn't need the telephoto lens on my camera. Did get escorted out of an area by a bull moose that wasn't all that happy with us.. We were down wind and saw a cow and two calves. None of us had the common sense to realize that if there was a cow and calves there would also be a bull so we started to sneek up to get a closer view. This thing stood up and then stood up some more and then continues to stand up. Largest animal I've ever seen in the wild. We hit the canoes and fled. We were digging our canoe paddles as deep in the water as possible and this beastie was like knee deep. He never charged and just followed us. Got to what I figure was the boundry of his territory and he just stopped and let out a bellow. My guess is that the translation of the bellow would be something like "And stay out!". This beast could have caused serious harm to us and our stuff but I think some of these beasties sort of know how dumb humans can be at times and just laugh at us.


Actually my health is something that makes me feel blessed. Ya, I have a knee that causes me a bit of grief once in a while from sports injuries and am blind in one eye from a military injury yet, at age 68, I don't take a single prescription drug.

This one time I was scuba diving in the Maldives, the atoll I couldn't remember exactly. 20 minutes into the second dive of the day, I saw a huge moray eel about six to eight feet long (the girth is probably as wide as my leg) about 20 feet away from me laying on top of some rocks and corals. I slowly swam up to it, kind of scared of the size of him. When I got close to him about six feet away, he turned around and looked at me for about 5 seconds then swam away and snuck his head into a pile of rocks. Just his head though, exposing his entire body outside of that little rock pile. I couldn't help myself and started laughing right there.

So I guess the saying "it's more afraid of you than you are of it." is true sometime

I guess one of my more spectacular aquatic experiences would be aboard the Costa Allegra as we sailed in the Gulf Of Aden in 2010.

April 25th, ANZAC Day, on the top deck with other passengers, a loan piper playing as the sun rose, flat calm sea......surrounding the ship were in excess of 200 dolphins and whales who escorted us into the port of Aden.

Seeing so many around the ship was emotive in itself but to see them at sunrise as we listened to the loan piper at sunrise on ANZAC Day was magical

Done lots of snorkeling/free dives off the coast of Florida and many coral reefs in the southern part of Fl, many have been damaged by humans, but many still remain just beautiful. Once my niece and I were having a relaxed swim over one of the reefs when a shark about 4-5 feet long got within touching distance of both of us and just swam away. Twenty years later we still talk about this.

gilpi said:

Done lots of snorkeling/free dives off the coast of Florida and many coral reefs in the southern part of Fl, many have been damaged by humans, but many still remain just beautiful. Once my niece and I were having a relaxed swim over one of the reefs when a shark about 4-5 feet long got within touching distance of both of us and just swam away. Twenty years later we still talk about this.

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I've never done much diving but wish I had. I've never done any reef diving but did some scuba and snorkel in Canada's glacier lakes. Not the same kind of beauty as reefs but still beautiful in is own way.

Sort of funny the fact that I lived in the USA and was scuba certified in Canada but the Canadian certification was not considered valid in the US.

We used to do a lot of diving in the Rocky Mountain Lakes, mostly flooded industrial sites and stolen cars that were driven into Crowsnest lake on hwy 3. I was always jealous of people who got to dive in tropical water. Did a lot of diving in the Georgia Strait too. Now I snorkel in the lakes and rivers occasionally. Got a video of snorkeling the Nanaimo river I should try to find.