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ONE FOGGY DAY...  One very foggy October morning in 74, I rowed my 16ft plywood dory to a neighbouring bay to visit afriend. I was very pregnant with my and rowing was awkward.....You know, how you lift the oars and lean forward, pushing the oars, extending your arms., then you lean back as you pull the oars through the water.....but when you are very pregnant, your belly is in the way and so the strokes are much shorter than usual....Every time I went rowing my stroke was shorter..... The fog, instead of lifting in the morning sun, was getting denser and heavier, until I couldn't see more than 6 ft.ahead.....The tide was high and the shore was steep granite bluff......I went closer to the familiar shore-line so I could tell where I was.....it's easy to stray in those conditions. It was so foggy seagulls were only visible for one wing-beat. Appearing and disappearing into the grey blanket. Then I saw something in the water.....appearing and disappearing at the blurry edge of visibility.......a Human hand ....it was sticking up vertically out of the water....then disappearing under the surface.....over and over......I just stared, trying to see clearly.....then I heard/felt it under my boat and then a splashing and a scraping and huffing sound on the rock.... I pulled towards the sound and there was a huge otter perched on the rock. She was shaking off the water like a dog, standing on her hind and had her human-like hands close to her face..........I laughed in relief.....for a split second I thought someone was drowning.....I had once rescued a man near that very spot who had brought his large, untrained into his canoe and the had chased a sea-gull that flew by........ |
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Another funny otter encounter was several years later when my son was 7. I had taken him for a trip in the kayak. We were at our favourite swimming beach and exploring some limestone caves. The tide was at a perfect height for us to be able to glide right into the cave..... In a 2-man kayak, the person steering and/or the strongest paddler sits in the back. My son loved having the bow.....This cave was just wide enough for the boat to slide in.....we had to stow our paddles and move forward by pushing against the walls. It didn't occur to us that it would be very awkward if we wanted to make a quick exit. It was a long cave and completely dark when our boat gently bumped int the back-wall. When our eyes adjusted, we saw, right at eye-level, eight glowing yellow eyes staring back at us.......Two eyes a little bigger and higher up than the others and then 6 little yellow beams all in a row.........At the same time we realized they were otters, they dove.........
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When the otters in the cave dove, there wasn't much water water not covered by kayak for them to dive in, but they all executed perfect dives . I could hear my son catch his breath and then when we could hear them swimming under the boat, he laughed and laughed. We tried to repeat the experience several times but it never happened again......We did watch them sliding down bluffs and into the chuck many times. Soil collects in the grooves of the rocks on these smooth granite bluffs and the otters build slides, where they slide several meters down the steep rocks on their butts and right into the chuck...rinse and repeat.
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Wow~~~~ Eerie!!! 
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Wow~~~~ Eerie!!!
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The book is called "The Codfish Dream" (Chronicles of a West Coast Fishing Guide) by David Giblin........Heritage House is the publisher
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I really enjoyed reading your encounters with otters - would have loved to have been there to experience same. Although it was quite a few years ago, I remember being thrilled by naturalist/author Gavin Maxwell's book 'Ring of Bright Water' and quickly fell in love with otters as a result. I recall laughing delightedly at their antics as well as admiration of their intelligence. The only otters I've seen here, are sadly in the zoo.
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