SURFY TAKES OVER

Surfy Comes to Visit

One delightfully calm day, I ran my boat around Cape Henry and anchored my little boat off the beach, just beyond the surf (if you can call our east coast wavelets surf), and swam in to have breakfast at my dad's restaurant and wait for my spearfishing buddy to arrive. As I settled in for a second hot donut the lifeguard came running in and told everyone within 100 yards there was a seal in my boat. I just gaffed him off, thinking it was payback for some of my numerous pranks.

He convinced us to come over to the beach. Dad grabbed his binoculars and we flew to the boardwalk. Something was in the boat. It looked at first like a dog. Yes, Virginia there was a seal in my boat. We were astounded. Dad had seen the occasional seal further down the uninhabited coast but never one in the populated area. I had never seen one.

Hell, I did not even know that there were seals in our area...what do kids know? I swam out and there he was. It was his boat now. When I peeked over the side, he barked like a dog and bared his teeth. I backed off. I tried to bluff him. I came up and barked back. He scuttled across the seat and jumped out on the other side of the boat.

I had just seen those teeth, so I cleared the side of the boat getting in. If he was out, I was going to be in. He started circling the boat like a hungry shark. He looked pitiful. I was in the stern near the motor and he jumped into the boat onto the front seat. We sat there sizing each other up...not saying a thing. Time stood still. The lifeguard paddled out on his surfboard. Everyone just looked at each other.

In life timing is everything. A boat approached us. In 1964 that was an event in itself as you had to travel over 10 miles from an available inlet to get there and small boats were hardly ever seen off the beach. Now there were two and one had a seal. This was true twilight zone stuff. It gets more amazing if possible. The lone guy in the other boat had taken his boat down all the way from Richmond. That is a two hour drive in a car, I have no clue how long in a 18 foot boat, and he had a camera. He started taking pictures. I was delighted. The seal didn't seem to care.

The lone boatman and I talked. I wanted those pictures. Imagine telling this story without pictures. The film turned out to be Ektachrome so I had to develop it myself at the Old Dominion Marine Research Station in Norfolk where I had a darkroom and E-3 chemicals available. We planned to meet at the lab on his way back to Richmond. In the meantime Dad had called a friend on the Norfolk and Virginian Pilot and he wanted the pictures and story. Our CB radios were crackling. It was a slow news day and this was really a good story.

I started the motor, the seal didn't do anything but yawn. Spearfishing was the last thing on my mind so we headed to the house and our dock (about 15 miles from that spot on the coast). First five miles were easy as I went north along the beach. The water was fairly smooth. At the entrance to Chesapeake Bay there is always some rough water. I slowed down an held my breath. My fears that he would jump out were groundless, he was stuck to the seat in the boat. It seemed to take forever for the run west to Lynnhaven Inlet into Broad Bay, thru the narrows, down Linkhorn Bay, Little Neck Creek and to our house. Surfy seemed to enjoy the ride. He sat with his head up high, sniffing the air, and looking around.

When I got to the dock at the house he jumped up on the dock following me. Strange behavior in a wild animal. I ran up to the house got a fish out of the freezer, thawed it in hot water, cut it up and ran back to the dock. The seal (actually a California sea lion) took the fish with glee. I made a friend. At least a food friend. I lured him into the basement with the last fish chunk and closed the door.

Now for the run to the lab at high speed without police escort. The photographer was at the lab when I arrived and gave me the film. I developed and gave the slides to the newspaper. It hit the paper and the wire services as far away as California. At this point I still thought I had a seal. In the morning when the paper came out, the phones rang off the hook. It was not a seal, it was a California Sea Lion, someone explained because of the ears. I know you are now wondering what the hell a California Sea Lion was doing on the East Coast . Things became clear later in the day. The little guy was part of a consignment of Sea Lions for a Zoo in Baltimore that escaped or were freed in transit...It was already humanized and dependent upon the kindness of humans for food. A number of them had showed up along the East Coast, dead from gunshot wounds and other causes. Boy was he hungry. Always hungry.

All was not well however. My new girlfriend, current and only wife called up furious. "Why didn't you call and tell me about it." She complained bitterly.

One of her aunts had seen the article in the Winchester, Va newspaper and asked Patti if her new boyfriend was the same guy as in the newspaper. She was really ticked not hearing it from me first. I never successfully explained to her about not giving her a call. After 36 years the subject still comes up. Quite frankly, telling anybody at that point was not on my agenda as I was busy feeding the critter, basking in the publicity, and fielding calls from the reporters and buddies. Had I told her, she would not have believed me. My aunt called from Pebble Beach California. She had read the story in her local newspaper. She sent me a clipping.

Surfy spent the summer on the dock behind our house, or diving with me to the amazement of other divers. He would ride in my boat and free dive circles aground me at the bridge tunnel islands in Chesapeake bay. When I went to Nags Head NC to dive the shore wrecks in my VW Van, he would come along. He stayed in a plastic play pool in the back of the van...wasn't house broken at all....he had no concept....yuk. I got the plastic pool after cleaning up a real mess. At the beach he would shuffle across the sand and beat me in the water. It's hell when your diving buddy doesn't have to put on any gear. Since he knew where the food came from, he always came out of the water with me. Imagine the stares of the occasional diver and beach goer when they found us lounging on the beach or playing in the water.

When he lay in the sun on the dock, my retriever Chris would lay beside Surfy taking in the warm summer rays. They were great friends as soon as they found out that they got attention together (that means food). When people would come over to see us by car or boat, they would bark to announce their arrival. Seems we had more visitors that summer than usual.

That was one crazy summer having him zoom around me tirelessly in the water, feeding him fresh speared fish in the water. He only weighed about 60 pounds and was my best ever freediving companion. He only had a couple of tricks. One was to come when I called him to go for a ride in the van or boat and the other was to eat on command....any command.

Farewell at the Zoo

At the end of the summer, I had a real problem. He had no survival skills, the habitat was wrong for him and I was going to be 325 miles inland playing at getting an education. I had a hard decision to make--what to do with him. Somehow I could not see how I could sneak him into the dorm. Especially since I went to a military college. Mom hated what he did to the dock, she wasn't even crazy about Chris, being a small fluffy dog lover. Dad didn't even have a chance of keeping him....even if he had wanted to. Then I learned about the sea lion exhibit at the Norfolk Zoo. I took Surfy to the Norfolk zoo where he met his new playmates and soon fit right in. The newspaper covered the farewell and I got another 15 minutes of fame.

Dad loves animals, he even had a black bear as a pet as a kid as well as a string of "farm animals". Nowadays he has his attack bird Sammy.