Friday, December 27, 2013

Enter Whitey

Hi All,
We hadn't seen dolphins for two days and were anxious to find anyone. The day was gorgeous with the a light wind coming out of the south east making for calm seas on Grace Bay. There were very few rain clouds which was a relief after dodging rain on Xmas day. We headed out of Leeward and made our first big circle around Grace Bay. As we came back to Leeward, we saw three dorsals heading out way. The first had a white tip. They all came right toward the boat so I got in to see who was who. I know another dolphin with a white tip on the end of her dorsal but she (I think) has never come close to me so I don't believe it was her. This dolphin came right to me as if I knew him (her). His dorsal had a lot of white on the end and white on the right side of his fluke. His fluke was also missing the very end of the left side as well as being tattered on both sides. His pecs were also tattered. He was a big dolphin like JoJo probably 7 feet and from all the nicks and bruises I'd say fairly old. The other two dolphins were Julia and Frisky. I was getting a very nice swim with Whitey, which is what I decided to call the new dolphin,when the tour boats started arriving. As soon as they got close, Whitey went way deep and I didn't see him again. I then went over to Julia and Frisky who let me swim with them as they negotiated the tour boats. At one point there were 9 tour boats all crowding around trying to get their tourists a good dolphin sighting. I think Julia and Frisky had had enough and swam away from me at speed. I hope they didn't feel I had anything to do with all the traffic.
After all the boats left, John and I followed Julia and Frisky as they made their way leisurely around Grace Bay. I was very sad to have my swim with Whitey interrupted. A few hours later they made their way out to the Club Med Cut, which is where all the dive boats go past the reef and where dolphins sometimes come back from outside the reef. We thought maybe someone would join them because they seemed to be just waiting around maybe calling. After awhile another dorsal did appear!! It was Whitey who once again came right to the boat. Just as I was about to climb in a parasail boat came whizzing by VERY close to our boat and right over the top of Whitey! Whitey again disappeared. GRRRRR JoJo wouldn't care but Whitey is not into boat traffic! We never saw Whitey again.
We followed Julia and Frisky almost  to the end of Pine Cay. I only got a few swims as they weren't into long interaction. We were hoping to find other dolphins when we got there but it was getting too dark and we didn't quite make it to the end. As we were following along we were hearing across our radio that two Humpbacks had been spotted outside of Leeward heading toward Pine Cay. The funny part was that just that morning I had mentioned to John that perhaps the whales would start coming by as they usually show up in early January but so many animals seem to be starting their migrations earlier.
 Whitey

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