Thursday, January 15, 2015

Dolphins or Whales

Hi All,
Despite not seeing a single cetacean on our first day back, we are up early and on the search. Bob, the marine weather man, has told us the wind is from the Southeast which although quite strong, will help to flatten the waves on the Grace Bay side of the Island. The waves are barely breaking on the reef and it looks great for spotting dorsals. As we pass other boat captains, they wave and give us the no dolphins spotted sign. We press on. As we pass Half Moon Beach and head further up Pine Cay, I see a dorsal heading towards us!! That would of course be JoJo.
He heads to our boat and I get in to greet him. It's a bit murky as the photo shows but, I can see him well enough to have a short swim. The photo I'm trying to take is of him following me, not an easy thing to do when you are swimming with a snorkel and camera. He wants me to take the lead so he can follow me like he does with the other female dolphins. I however am too slow for whatever mission he's on this am.
After he swims off to make his point clear that he wants to go faster, I climb back in Spy Hop. He swims into our wake as we go the way he wants. We take him past all the resorts and all the way to the channel leading into Turtle Cove.  John spots the under water submersible, Undersea Explorer. This is a boat that has a glassed in compartment beneath the water for people to observe marine life without getting wet! John radios ahead to tell Alistair that we are coming with JoJo in our wake. He heads our way and as we get close, JoJo darts over to their boat and puts on a show for the passengers.
After he was through entertaining, he went off for brunch in Crystal Bay. The area is loaded with coral heads and is relatively shallow. It can be quite treacherous. We decided not to try and follow him. In addition, earlier, just as we had found JoJo, we heard over the radio that a whale was spotted by Pine Cay. This is the time of year the Humpbacks pass through on their migration route to the Silver Bank to calve and breed. We had made the choice then that, "a bird in hand is worth two in the bush".

With JoJo in Crystal Bay, we decide to head up to Pine Cay and go outside the reef to see if the whale is still around. I'll keep you posted!!

No comments:

Post a Comment