Whales and Dolphins!

Hi All, After dodging rain and basically giving up yesterday, we are out at the break of dawn today. The osprey is flying over head carrying a big fish to his mate for breakfast. The water looks flat at the moment. We know the wind will be coming up as the day goes on. I'm thinking a quick trip past the reef at Leeward for a whale check. We pass through the channel markers and head out. There's a little rain coming our way just enough to make a beautiful rainbow.

We drop the hydrophone in and WOW they must be close! We don't see any spouts. We motor a little way off. I look back toward Leeward cut and the whale breaches then breaches again, blows, dives his tail pushing him down for a deep dive.

IMG_8551 from Jay Sargent on Vimeo.

We don't see him again. As we are heading toward the cut, a big hawksbill turtle raises his head and takes a deep breath then sits at the surface until he notices we are watching. Sploosh down he goes Now this is a great way to start the day! It isn't even 9am and we've listened to a whale chatting loudly then breaching and watched a turtle floating along at the surface. Time to look for dolphins before the wind really picks up. We make our usual loop in Grace Bay then head up to Pine Cay. By this time it's approaching noon, the wind is starting to blow and I'm thinking about the tunafish I'd made up for lunch. I was envisioning a nice spot tucked away in a channel where the wind wasn't blowing and the sun would be beating down. As we pass the Meridian Club where a few boats always bring people to the beach, I see a dorsal then another. They hear our boat and immediately start heading our way. I love the dolphins and the dolphins love me! I recognize JoJo's dorsal and figure Julia is with him. I'm hoping she isn't still miffed at me. They both come to the boat and wait for me to climb in. The water is so murky I seriously can't see them unless they are right beside me. I swim for a while in between them before Julia is off, probably to fish. Apparently she's forgiven me. I lose sight of JoJo and swim around like Mrs. Magoo not being able to see anything until I hear John yelling "he's right behind you".

He must think humans are so pathetic when they clearly haven't a clue what's going on around them especially when it's murky. Luckily for me he wants me around. We lose sight of Julia and think JoJo has gone off to find her. With the wind whipping around Fort George Cay making it pretty nasty, we decide to head back in the other direction which is with the wind. Perhaps now for the tunafish! Just as we start back, JoJo surfaces right by the boat. He must have been under us but it was to windy to hear him surface to breath. We give him a short ride behind Spy Hop and he branches. Now for sure we are heading back to quieter water, less wind and the tunafish! We find a scenic place halfway down Pine Cay where we have some quiet water. I peel down my soggy and cold wet suit and enjoy the sun warming me up. We are thinking it's been a great day and we could get back early. I have a call I need to make to Apple to try to figure out more confusing things on my computer. Hopefully I will get it before they change everything again. Why do they have to constantly update when I've just barely got a grip on things the way they are? Evolution in electronics is going way too fast in my opinion! We start heading back when a dolphin aims right for the back of our boat. Now I know it isn't JoJo because we just left him at the far end of Pine Cay. So who is it? I'm trying to zip up my cold soggy wet suit so I can get in and see who's here. I see a cut off dorsal. Snipper has joined us with a friend. I get one opportunity to see Snipper as he races by. He and his friend are traveling so fast there is no chance of swimming with them and unlike JoJo they don't wait for me. I'm so happy to see Snipper. I had just remarked to John that we might not see him again for a long time like before. The last time I saw him was in 2011.

It's so handy to have a distinguishing mark that you can see from the boat like JoJo's notch in his dorsal. I of course, certainly don't want any harm to the dolphins "just sayin".