if you are keen on dolphins i know spots in south america where i could get you to experience that. about a 100 dolphins at a time. i know some spots. where salt and fresh water meetFunny that my story is also about aquatic wildlife.
So as I was leaving port for my first deployment out of San Diego Bay, aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68), in 2003 I witnessed something that in all my other time at sea I have never seen. By the time we left for deployment I had been on the ship for well over a year and the year before a deployment has a lot of underway time. The ship and its crew have training, drills, certifications, etc. that all needs to happen before the ship deploys for 6 months or more overseas. So I had already spent roughly 6 months at sea and pulled in and out of San Diego Bay more than a dozen times.
Now, I was lucky. The saying in the Navy is "choose your rate, choose your fate." My "rate" was Fire Controlman. In the Navy "rate" basically means what your job or specialty is. My job was working on the ship's self-defense missile systems. A huge perk of this job was that missile launchers, by nature, have to be mounted on the exterior of the ship. The platforms the missile launchers are mounted on are called sponsons. My shop was essentially inside the void under the sponson and I had direct access to the launcher sponson.
The red circle was where I spent the majority of my time onboard the ship. That was one of my missile launchers, below it was my shop and my workcenter office. So I had access to fresh air whenever I wanted it. There were days at sea when we went up there in the middle of the night during "darken ship" when there were no lights on, in the middle of the ocean, and saw the most incredible view of the stars you can see with the naked eye.
But the most amazing thing I've ever experienced was as we were leaving San Diego Bay for my first deployment. I was standing on the sponson, watching San Diego shrinking away, and then I noticed dolphins swimming towards the ship. I had seen that before, sometimes they like to play in the wake of the ship. But a few turned into many, and many turned into thousands, and thousands turned into tens of thousands. As far out as I could see in all the directions I had a view of there were dolphins coming towards us. The ones who were there were literally taking turns swimming in the wake. I could see them, there was a set near the surface who would line up in the wake and eventually do some sort of jump or other maneuver that took them out of the wake and then another that could be seen below them would move up, and you could see at least four other sets below before the water obscured the view, all waiting their turn to play. And all this time there were still more approaching the ship. An aircraft carrier has the initial wake from the nose of the ship and then it has a couple secondary wakes. You can see from my pic I had a very good view of the largest wake coming off the nose, but I could see the first secondary wake as well and there were dolphins everywhere. They were all playing, but also waiting for their turn, and all seemed to follow the basic etiquette, not staying too long before they did their jump or other trick.
I have told people as well as I could about this several times. I tell them there were literally tens of thousands of dolphins and I feel like they always take that as an exaggeration, like I saw several hundred, maybe close to a thousand. There were more than a thousand dolphins. It's hard to say if it was 4000 or 6000 or 10,000 or 20,000. But the sea was absolutely full of dolphins. Near the ship it was as crowded as an amusement park. And I could see them for hundreds of yards out as they jumped out of the water as they approached. It was surrealistic. It was magical. I have absolutely never experienced anything like that in my life.
I went through another series of workups and another deployment in 2005. Every time we left San Diego Bay, easily another 12-20 times, I went out and almost expected to see it again, but I never did.
Funny that my story is also about aquatic wildlife.
So as I was leaving port for my first deployment out of San Diego Bay, aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68), in 2003 I witnessed something that in all my other time at sea I have never seen. By the time we left for deployment I had been on the ship for well over a year and the year before a deployment has a lot of underway time. The ship and its crew have training, drills, certifications, etc. that all needs to happen before the ship deploys for 6 months or more overseas. So I had already spent roughly 6 months at sea and pulled in and out of San Diego Bay more than a dozen times.
Now, I was lucky. The saying in the Navy is "choose your rate, choose your fate." My "rate" was Fire Controlman. In the Navy "rate" basically means what your job or specialty is. My job was working on the ship's self-defense missile systems. A huge perk of this job was that missile launchers, by nature, have to be mounted on the exterior of the ship. The platforms the missile launchers are mounted on are called sponsons. My shop was essentially inside the void under the sponson and I had direct access to the launcher sponson.
The red circle was where I spent the majority of my time onboard the ship. That was one of my missile launchers, below it was my shop and my workcenter office. So I had access to fresh air whenever I wanted it. There were days at sea when we went up there in the middle of the night during "darken ship" when there were no lights on, in the middle of the ocean, and saw the most incredible view of the stars you can see with the naked eye.
But the most amazing thing I've ever experienced was as we were leaving San Diego Bay for my first deployment. I was standing on the sponson, watching San Diego shrinking away, and then I noticed dolphins swimming towards the ship. I had seen that before, sometimes they like to play in the wake of the ship. But a few turned into many, and many turned into thousands, and thousands turned into tens of thousands. As far out as I could see in all the directions I had a view of there were dolphins coming towards us. The ones who were there were literally taking turns swimming in the wake. I could see them, there was a set near the surface who would line up in the wake and eventually do some sort of jump or other maneuver that took them out of the wake and then another that could be seen below them would move up, and you could see at least four other sets below before the water obscured the view, all waiting their turn to play. And all this time there were still more approaching the ship. An aircraft carrier has the initial wake from the nose of the ship and then it has a couple secondary wakes. You can see from my pic I had a very good view of the largest wake coming off the nose, but I could see the first secondary wake as well and there were dolphins everywhere. They were all playing, but also waiting for their turn, and all seemed to follow the basic etiquette, not staying too long before they did their jump or other trick.
I have told people as well as I could about this several times. I tell them there were literally tens of thousands of dolphins and I feel like they always take that as an exaggeration, like I saw several hundred, maybe close to a thousand. There were more than a thousand dolphins. It's hard to say if it was 4000 or 6000 or 10,000 or 20,000. But the sea was absolutely full of dolphins. Near the ship it was as crowded as an amusement park. And I could see them for hundreds of yards out as they jumped out of the water as they approached. It was surrealistic. It was magical. I have absolutely never experienced anything like that in my life.
I went through another series of workups and another deployment in 2005. Every time we left San Diego Bay, easily another 12-20 times, I went out and almost expected to see it again, but I never did.
