Saturday, November 24, 2018

Turks T day

Hi All, Yesterday, while eating an amazing feast with our good friends the Levays, it was mentioned that in Turks, the Turks islanders give thanks on the Friday after our T'Giving Day. Apparently the dolphins do the same. It is absolutely the most gorgeous day ever. The sun is glistening off the water. We see five flamingoes fly over head making their funny honking noise. The water is absolutely flat. I'm hoping to find JoJo and that the remora will have found a new host. I haven't had a really nice swim with him yet. We go to Beaches, turn back then motor all the way to Pine Cay. John is always hoping to fit in a snorkel in between dolphin searches. I say lets snorkel inside the reef out past Pine Cay. Just as we start heading that way I see a dark shape in the water I hope it's JoJo. As we motor over to take a closer look. We see a shark peacefully making its way to the reef. On a normal Pine Cay day the water would be so murky we wouldn't have been able to see this shark. Once he travels over the dark reef' we lose sight and continue on to find the perfect reef to snorkel. Two dorsals appear traveling parallel to the reef. So much for the snorkel! We are off to follow the dorsals. We are sure it's Bo and Scooter. Bo is having her Thanksgiving feast as she dives deep doing some fishing. It appears she's teaching Scooter how to do deep dives. Her cute tail is coming way out of the water to propel her far down into the deep blue water. They are traveling fast and I figure they will fish for a while then turn toward shore and hopefully come to the boat so I can swim with them. After a half-hour or so, they start heading away from the reef toward Pine Cay. They head toward Spy Hop. (How lucky am I!!!!) I get in with them but Bo isn't done fishing. They are whizzing around under me and I see why. There is a nurse shark minding his own business but this always causes great excitement for the dolphins. I don't see her poke him with her rostrum but I'd say she probably did. In any case, he swims off glad to get away from this pesky dolphin. Bo has found a fish along the bottom to chase at speed. Scooter is swimming around watching all this unfold. Bo and Scooter eventually come to the surface and I join up with them. I however make the mistake of swimming to Bo's left side. Now for the 20 odd years I've been swimming with dolphins I've always swum on their right sides. I always attach my camera to the left side of my mask so you can see them. As soon as I got right by Bo's side I knew I'd made a mistake. Perhaps even broken dolphin etiquette! Scooter is on the other side of Bo and comes hurtling over her and crashes into me!! They bolt! I feel dreadful and hope I haven't spooked Scooter and or pissed off Bo. I look up into Spy Hop and tell John what happened and ask where they went. He points them out and to my relief they act like nothing happened at all! Bo is still enjoying her T. Giving day dinner as she crater fishes along the bottom. Scooter is circling me and darting all around. A yellow tour boat comes up and respectfully slows down a good distance from us. Bo crater fishes as Scooter goes to look at the boat then circles me perhaps showing off. We are lucky not too many boats come by and all are respectful. After swimming with them for many hours (killed two scooters) we leave them. I'm looking forward to a nice meal at Ocean Club with terrific music by Quentin Dean!

Dolphin T day from Jay Sargent on Vimeo.

No comments:

Post a Comment