JoJo's Send Off

Hi All,
It's down to our very last day. Thankfully the water is calm again as we head out on the JoJo loop. Kristen my daughter is with us and another friend. They both keep mentioning how much they'd like to swim with JoJo. We start heading out Sellers Cut to check to see if there are any whales. Just as we pass the buoys marking the entrance to the cut, John sees JoJo. He's coming up from behind quickly to catch up with our boat. We are pretty sure he doesn't want to go past the reef so we turn around and head back down Grace Bay with him in our wake. It's now 9:30. We have traveled the entire length of Grace Bay, past Little Water Cay, Big Water Cay and are on our way past Pine Cay.
He branches off and I get in to see if he's up for a swim. He is but only if you can keep up! We lose him and head off to the reef to check out a whale we heard was outside the reef. Luckily in my opinion we didn't find the whale and come back to see if JoJo is still around. I'm pretty sure he'll be there. He is on the shallow bank between Fort George and Dellis Cay and appears to be in sleep mode. He's slowly swimming back and forth making a diagonal pattern in from of our boat. As he comes out of sleep mode, he makes a fishing dive and is off into the channel for a long fish. He doesn't crater fish here. He's after fish that are going through the channel. When he surfaces he makes loud puffs from the exertion of rocketing after them. He goes clear out the other end of the channel onto the South Side . We see a fisherman who is catching some large fish. I hope JoJo is doing the same. It is drop dead gorgeous in this channel with the water twinkling on this bright sunny day. Occasionally, we see a flock of Sand Pipers fly by going about their busy lives. Once JoJo has had his fill, he joins us again, coming up behind the boat and we head off toward Grace Bay. He wants to go past Grace Bay, past Smith Reef and into Crystal Bay. Perhaps he doesn't want this day to end either! The girls are really wanting to swim with him. So far the time hasn't been right. I figure when we get almost to Northwest Point we will get our opportunity!
He likes to scratch in the coral on the many coral heads before he usually wants to head back to Grace Bay.
John stops the boat right near a reef and we get in.

Go to video

JoJo's Send off Feb 23,2016 https://vimeo.com/156544521 The beginning of video shows my first swim with him at Pine cay then on to Crystal Bay.  We have a great long swim with JoJo scratching on the anchor line and visiting my daughter and Abby our guest. As we get in the boat I explain how JoJo has many modes and I've learned to read them. Sometimes I may wait a long time to get a great swim with him because he's busy with other missions. It's all up to him and I honor that. I feel that's why we have this relationship. Most people want instant gratification I however am interested in everything I can learn about his life and family. Our guests feel the same way and have throughly enjoyed witnessing a day in the life of a bottlenose dolphin.He now wants to head  back to Grace Bay. It is now 5:30 and we need to take our boat back to Caicos Marina where we pull it out of the water until November. Luckily he branches off at 7 stars so he leaves us instead of us leaving him. This is a sad day for me. I expect JoJo will be listening for our boat and sad as well that we aren't there to taxi him around and swim with him. This season he has introduced me to 4 new dolphins, Sponge Bob being the most memorable. He showed me how he travels into territory I hadn't seen him in. I once again thank him very much for letting me into his life. I now have to worry that he's ok until November.