Tim's Blog!

I have always been a keen sailor. I started sailing little boats called ‘Optimists’ when I was just six years old.Around the age of twelve or thirteen most kids move on from Optimists into more challenging boats and in New Zealand you generally graduate into a boat called a ‘P Class.’ This is a tiny boat, only about three metres long with a massive sail– a very challenging little boat indeed. When I was twelve there was a ‘P Class’ for sale at my local yacht club. The boat was called Toredo and I decided that it would be the most suitable ‘P Class’ for me to graduate to.

I tested out Toredo on the magnificently beautiful Picton Harbour, the heart of the Marlborough Sounds at the top of the South Island of New Zealand. It was a stunning day with a nice breeze and being the middle of the week, there were no other boats out with us.

David, the current boat owner was zooming back and forth beside me on his windsurfer and I was sailing a few hundred metres away and loving the added speed this boat gave me, compared with my current ‘Optimist’.

All of a sudden I heard a swashing sound coming from behind the boat. I checked. I couldn’t see anything straight away so I carried on sailing. About 5 seconds later the swash came back. (That sounds like the title of a good children’s book, “The Swash Came Back.”) I turned and identified where the sound was coming from. My face turned ghost-white. A grey dorsal fin wastravelling straight at me, attached to a massive grey-looking shadow. It was only about twenty metres from my little boat and was travelling at speed.

Here was I, in a tiny boat, in an almost empty harbour and in serious danger.

As it came to within two or three metres of where I was, it dived straight under the boat. At this point I realised it was much bigger than I had first thought. It was in fact about the same size as the yacht itself, if not larger. I watched it dart away, then a second later another grey flash passed under my boat, this one not quite as big.

TWO!

I turned the boat downwind and headed straight for the clubhouse at full speed. Praying the boat would go faster I heard the Swash again. The two grey shadows of certain death had turned around and were headed for me again. They went under my boat again, as if casing out the scene of the crime before they struck. Then they began to circle me.

Panicked, I decided to make some noise by banging on the hull of the boat to scare them off. It only seemed to make them more excited so they swam faster and faster. Suddenly they made another approach but a lot faster. I braced myself for a violent next few seconds. They dived.

Silence.

I was looking all around the boat. I knew that Sharks attack by coming up from the depths so I was looking either side of the boat preparing myself for imminent destruction.

BOOM! Suddenly, a massive creature leaped out of the water about ten metres in front of my little boat. It was huge. BOOM, another. Both flew into the air about a metre and a half high and then with ease dived straight back into the water. Both creatures had a shiny, rubbery look to them.

Dolphins.

How amazing that I was all by myself and two friendly dolphins had decided to keep me company. All these dolphins wanted to do was to play with me. They would come right up alongside the boat then dart away-showing off. They would swim around the boat, under the boat. They even hit my centreboard at one stage.

My favourite memory was when the big dolphin slowed down literally right beside my yacht and swam at my pace for a few seconds.

As I went to touch it, it zoomed off as if playing a game of tag. It was a mother and her child, so I wasn’t keen to get into the water, just in case Mum might get a little  protective of her offspring.

David sailed over when he realised what was happening, then all four of us jostled around Picton Harbour together, for what seemed like hours.

On arriving back to the yacht club, I told David that it musthave been a kind of omen.Toredo was meant for me.

David was excited, but not as excited as I was at the dinner table that night. With the support of my parents, I had just bought a fast little ‘P class’ yacht, and spent the day sailing around Picton Harbour with two gentle, fun and friendly Dolphins. This is one of my most amazing childhood memories.

That is the day Mother Nature popped up and said “Hey man.”

Tim Maddren