The Shark That Ate Our Summer

Getting smacked by a flying fish during an offshore race won’t make headlines, but what a shark coming onboard a dinghy competition? This story by Alison O’Leary comes close:

We were sailing east from the west passage of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, a couple miles offshore on a perfect mid-July day when, BAM! a crash got our attention.

“Something jumped into the dinghy!” yelled my partner John.

Sure enough, a triangular blue fin was visible in the gray Mercury inflatable that we were towing about 12 feet behind my 25-foot Catalina sailboat, the Esmeralda.

It was funny at first. We caught dinner! Then we got a closer look and realized the hitchhiker was a toothy 4- to 5-foot shark, not a bluefish that we could easily dispatch and filet. – Full report