Alligator Encounter

Last week at Xmas bay the kids were playing in the long grass next to the launch. "They really shouldn't be doing that" I thought, "there could be all sorts of things in there". Lo and behold, we pulled up yesterday at the same spot and there were three large brown snakes sunning themselves on the edge of the grass.

It got me thinking about the numerous run-ins with nature from the last few years. There was the 9ft tiger shark caught at Packery Channel, or the creature that grabbed and sucked on Julies leg at Cole Park, or the thousands of stinging jellyfish at Port Aransas that I fell in to the middle of one time, or the girl who got stung by a scorpion whilst windsurfing at Bird. It seems it had hitched a lift on the boom.

But probably the wildest was Noels alligator encounter. Noel was sailing at the Levee on a sunny spring day. Not a popular hang out for alligators as it is sandy beach and salty water. Plenty of people were on the water having fun. Windsurfers, kiters, fishermen and swimmers.

Noel was blasting out when he hit something hard. The impact catapulted him over the front of his board into the water. Thinking that he had hit a piece of floating debris he collected himself, he reorganized his kit, finally waterstarted and started heading back towards the launch. However, in the back of his mind there was a nagging feeling that something was wrong. As he started to pump the sail to get planing he glanced backwards to see an 8ft alligator swimming right behind him just inches from his board. It was glaring at Noel, straight in the eye. Noel had never got planing faster in his life and quickly put a safe distance between him and the angry alligator, luckily injury free with quite a tale to tell.