Odd occurence

On Thursday, while we were motoring in the the heavy swells under threat of rain, I checked the depth readout, as we do regularly. Away from shore, there are always depths of 100-200’ (in Passamaquoddy Bay, Canada, there were depths of 400-500’!). However, this time, the gauge read 28’, and I watched in disbelief as it quickly went down to 26’, back to 30’,down to 28 again. I kept thinking I was reading it incorrectly, but each time I looked it showed the same low numbers. I checked the chart, and it did not show any shallow depths. I made David come and look, and he saw the same thing. For several moments we were so confused— are our charts wrong? Did we make a mistake plotting the route? I ran below to check the paper chart, and it, too, did not show such shallow waters.

Now, in the middle of this, David started shouting, “ I see a shark fin!! A shark fin!!” But I told him to pay attention to the depths.

This went on for a couple of minutes, until the gauge finally reverted to the depths we expected. After talking about it, we decided it must have been a large creature that swam under the boat for a couple of minutes. I don’t remember seeing any normal depths in between, but there could have been, which might have meant more than one creature.

It could have been the shark (unconfirmed) that David saw, but I guess we will never know. Any of you experienced mariners have some ideas?Read more