Last weekend we went on a commercial tour to see dolphins [2]
and seals in Port Phillip (aka, ‘the Bay’, or the incorrect ‘Port
Phillip Bay’). I’ve seen dolphins before – bottlenose dolphins
up in the Cumberland
Group (aka ‘the Whitsundays’)
when I crewed for someone for a few weeks on a trailer sailor, while sailing a Hartley TS16 I used
to have on Western Port (aka ‘Westernport Bay’) – they may have
been Risso’s dolphins,
and at the top of end of Port Phillip when training for the sailing in the Sydney
2002 Gay Games, but
it has been over a decade since I have had an opportunity to get on the water,
let alone see dolphins – and I, as with many other people, feel a sense of
wonderment and connection with those marvellous creatures.
Well, the opportunity to experience that connection has occurred again,
with a group of us having gone on the aforementioned tour (thanks to the S and S lovebirds for having organised this - and at
their expense). I asked Yemaya for the opportunity us to safely see some
dolphins – and I specify safely, as I remember a passage in Stuart Holroyd’s
brilliant book “Briefing for the
Landing on Planet Earth”, where a dolphin died as a result of such a
request: the safety in consideration was the dolphins, not ours. I had the feeling
that there was a pod
slightly south of where we left, but they went further north and found a pod
where the young were being taught to fish.
It was a fascinating scene: fresh air (everyone else was rugged up – the non-tummo-indulging wimps :) )
with just a mild breeze, clear skies and rippled, sparkling water, gannets showing where the fish
were with their hard hitting dives … and dolphins. The dolphins had apparently
been identified as a separate species – the Southern Australian Bottlenose, or Burrunan Dolphin.
That is a more accurate identification that the identifications I have
struggled to make with Lyall
Watson’s (yes, Lyall Watson of “Supernature” fame) wonderful field
guide to identifying whales and dolphins, "Whales of the World: A Field Guide to the Cetaceans", published in 1981 (my copy is in storage, so I can't give you the ISBN and Publisher - my apologies).
On that particular day, the dolphins were teaching their young to fish,
and it seemed to me that they were doing things lie slapping the water with
their tails to herd
the fish – as other cetacean
mammals do. On a selfish
note, they were also rolling over on their sides to look up at us looking down
at them – as was the case with bottlenose dolphins I mentioned seeing in
Queensland.
The tour wasn’t crowded; the boat was stable and comfortable enough; the humans were all well
behaved … and all of that contributed to making it a great day.
What also helped me was that it was out of the city – leaving from Sorrento pier. As
soon as I was south of Mordialloc, I
could feel the relief of not being surrounded and pressed in by millions of
leaky human auras. Living in the city is quite literally killing me – slowly.
It is injuring my health, and warping my character, and I need to get out of
here. It would be nice, if I can do that, to get back on the water. I know
other people who have been damaged and warped by having to live in places they
weren’t suited – some quite profoundly. It is probably an ideal to be able to
live well anywhere, but it is important to be realistic as well. To use an
analogy, if you’re trying to learn how to climb a mountain, there is not point crippling
yourself by living too long in a low pressure chamber.
Going back to the dolphin tour, here are a few photos.
[2] Please
see here, here and my post "The
Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons
I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2,
although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather
engagingly - to be the Earth edition of
"The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").
[3] I apologise for the formatting: it seems Blogger is no longer as WYSIWYG as it used to be.
Love, light, hugs and blessings
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix
Lux … aka Morinehtar … would-be drýicgan or maga
... )
My "blogiography" (list of all posts and guide as to how to best use this
site) is here, and my glossary/index is here.
I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue
(see here and here), and it grew ... See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "Pagans for Peace" project (and join me
for a few minutes at some time between 8 and 11 PM on Sunday, wherever you are,
to meditate-clear for peace), and here
for my bindrune kit-bag. I also strongly recommend
learning how to flame, ground
and shield, do alternate
nostril breathing, work
with colour, and see also here and be
flexible.
Tags: about me, boats, dolphins, lifestyles, ocean, tummo, water,
First published: Laugardagr, 14th March, 2015
Last edited (excluding fixing typo's
and other minor matters): Saturday, 14th March, 2015
