Ever wonder what could be swimming beneath your keel?

Tom J

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Sep 30, 2008
2,301
Catalina 310 Quincy, MA
I knew manatee were swimming under my keel, because the depth sounder alarm kept going off. I almost had a heart attack, though, when I wanted to back out of our slip, and the water behind us exploded when I shifted into reverse. A manatee behind us had crash dived and the slap of his tail had sent water over my head and into the cabin.
 
Oct 19, 2017
7,732
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
I love the description of the winged sea slug as 'majestic'o_O

A vampire squid?:yikes:

-Will (Dragonfly)
 
Feb 17, 2006
5,274
Lancer 27PS MCB Camp Pendleton KF6BL
That is incredible. I never knew that some sea life went to such depths. I have seen on documentaries some of these creatures and knew about the life around hydro thermal vents. This is why I believe life exist on other planets. Might not be like us, but under ice covered planets with volcanic activity, yep. Life in the sea has been around much longer that we have, that is for sure.
 
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May 12, 2004
1,502
Hunter Cherubini 30 New Port Richey
I knew manatee were swimming under my keel, because the depth sounder alarm kept going off. I almost had a heart attack, though, when I wanted to back out of our slip, and the water behind us exploded when I shifted into reverse. A manatee behind us had crash dived and the slap of his tail had sent water over my head and into the cabin.
A manatee in MA? I grew up in Scituate and never heard of manatees until I moved to Fl. in '72. These Florida manatees don't fare well in cold water. And by cold water, I mean less than 65 deg. Learn something new every day.
 
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capta

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Jun 4, 2009
4,766
Pearson 530 Admiralty Bay, Bequia SVG
On my third trip to Hawaii, well into the tropics, we hit a dead calm.
We threw the ladder overboard and I dove in and swam about 50' out before I opened my eyes under water. There, below me in the depths, was this huge shadow. I mean, there's about two and a half MILES of water underneath me, and I wasn't happy.
Those on the boat told me no Olympic swimmer could have beat me that day! As I slid up to the ladder I realized that the shadow was made by the boat. Boy did I feel the fool, but my deep sea swimming was never for pleasure again.
 

Tom J

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Sep 30, 2008
2,301
Catalina 310 Quincy, MA
A manatee in MA? I grew up in Scituate and never heard of manatees until I moved to Fl. in '72. These Florida manatees don't fare well in cold water. And by cold water, I mean less than 65 deg. Learn something new every day.
Sorry, I should have said we were in Titusville, FL. The manatees were everywhere in the marina.
 

Tom J

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Sep 30, 2008
2,301
Catalina 310 Quincy, MA
My wife and I were kayaking off the leeward side of Maui, watching whales, when we heard a faraway sound like a whistle and horn together. It kept getting louder, and we thought maybe it was a dive boat at Molokini Island, signaling divers to return to the boat. The noise got closer and eventually we could hear it coming up through the hull of the kayak. Turns out it was a pod of whales swimming under us, very cool.
Later on, my wife's daughter and her husband paddled over to us in their kayak. They were in a hurry, and only stopped long enough to tell us a 12 foot tiger shark bumped the bottom of their kayak, and they were heading in. Lots of interesting things out there, swimming under our keels!
 
Oct 19, 2017
7,732
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
While on midnight watch during a Burmuda-Azores crossing, mid-Atlantic, I heard a hissing sound to starboard. I looked out and saw a phosphor tail streaking straight towards me at very high speed.
Of course, I use to watch all those old WWII movies when I was a kid and my first thought was some military submarine was using us as target practice. I didn't even have time to adjust course before it intersected with our hull. As soon as it got to us, it turned and played in our bow wave. The Atlantic Dolphin scared the yell out of me.

-Will (Dragonfly)
 
Sep 30, 2013
3,538
1988 Catalina 22 North Florida
I have seen on documentaries some of these creatures and knew about the life around hydro thermal vents. This is why I believe life exists on other planets.
That, and there are an estimated 23,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (that's twenty-three sextillion) planets in our universe. Never mind the moons.

Mathematically speaking, it is contemptible to even suggest we might be completely alone.
 
Oct 19, 2017
7,732
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
That, and there are an estimated 23,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (that's twenty-three sextillion) planets in our universe. Never mind the moons.

Mathematically speaking, it is contemptible to even suggest we might be completely alone.
Considering how prohibitively far away even the nearest planet, outside our solar system, is, the Cosmos is so big, it would still be a wonder that we ever ran into someone else. Think Zeno's Paradox.

-Will (Dragonfly)
 
Jul 27, 2011
4,989
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
The pictures depict some of the species much deeper than I believe is documented, or at least deeper than they commonly occur. Does not distinguish between pelagic and bottom-dwelling (benthic) species. Lizardfishes do not swim around in deep-ocean midwaters as they are bottom-living fishes which are ambush predators, etc. Certainly also true of Greenland halibut. FYI
 
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Jun 8, 2004
10,024
-na -NA Anywhere USA
Years ago I was sailing with a friend on the James River near Norfolk Naval Base asking him to leave as it was an active area for large ships. He did not see any but a plume of water. I took the tiller from him headed toward the shore at full throttle as I recognized it was a sub coming in. Scared the crap out of him as it was a close call. He listened to my suggestion to go sailing elsewhere.
 
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