It's a dark and Stormy Day

Hi All, This morning the water is flat. Great for looking for whale spouts however, there is a huge, dark bank of clouds coming our way. It is heralding a large and nasty storm system that will keep us off the water!

It's Dark and Stormy Day from Jay Sargent on Vimeo.

We got back to the marina just about 10 minutes too late and got totally soaked. I'm so glad I don't have any friends here for this week. This is the Caribbean winter not the paradise we know and love! The weathermen are telling us the weather won't be good until Friday.

WHALES!!!!

Hi All, The wind is up this morning from the south. We have invited our friend David to join us. With the wind like this its great next o shore with the island sheilding you from the wind. It isn't so great past the reef, however. As we head out Leeward Cut Panoply a big fishing boat is ahead of us. John radios Bruce, the captain and undoubtedly the best fisherman on island. Bruce tells us where he saw whales yesterday. Wind or no wind we are off past the reef! After a lumpy ride we drop the hydrophone in and this is what we heard!

It took us forever to actually locate them! We did eventually find two whales. Despite the rough seas it was totally worth it!

Richard Meets JoJo

Hi All, JoJo was a star yesterday. He was waiting right at Leeward and got in our slip stream. We taxied him around for a while with Richard getting to see our famous JoJo in his element. Richard has seen thousands of dolphins but has never witnessed a dolphin riding in the slipstream of the boat the way JoJo does. Dolphins have big brains and have so many different ways of dealing in their different environments. We then looked for whales with no luck. However, we know they are around Gran Turk!We finished the day finding Bo and Scooter. Bo was fishing and Scooter was staying right with her.

Finally Found Bo and Scooter

Hi All, After not finding Bo and Scooter since I returned, I was imagining the worst! We set out early didn't find JoJo and traveled to Northwest Point hoping to hear a whale with our hydrophone. I have invited Richard Connor down to meet the dolphins and for the last two weeks we havent seen Bo or Scooter and JoJo isn't staying with our boat as much. Oh great, what if he comes here and I can't find a dolphin! Richard has done a very long study of the dolphins in Shark Bay Australia. There are many, many dolphins there and they have some amazing alliances politics going on between groups. He has documented this in a book called "Dolphin Politics in Shark Bay". He really knows his stuff! We are scheduled to pick up Richard at 2:30 at the airport. So after going to Northwest Point and not seeing anything but the occasional piece of trash (which we picked up diligently hoping to create good Karma), we headed to Pine Cay. I'm thinking of telling Richard "at least it's warm and pretty here even if we can't find a dolphin!" The Parrot Cay boat comes by and tells us he has seen the two dolphins a few days ago. Major phew! We start heading back toward the marina to tie up Spy Hop and to the airport when John spots two dolphins. You have no idea how happy I was to see these familar dorsals! I get a chance to swim with Bo and Scooter making our time really tight getting to the airport. When I tell you John floored it the whole way, I'm not kidding. We not only made it in time but but brought Richard back for a quick turn around in the condo then back on the water. We even found Bo and Scooter again. Must have been all that trash pick up karma!!!

Remora Still hanging On

Hi All, The boat is in the water and we have been going out. JoJo still has that tenacious remora glued to his peduncle. I'm in panic mode because I have a certified dolphin expert coming to meet these guys and I havent seen Bo or Scooter since I came back!!!Perhaps we will find them today!!

JoJo and Remora 1 from Jay Sargent on Vimeo.

Catch Up

Hi All, I have been off island for a week catching up on things at home. When we returned early Sat morning, all ready to get right out on our boat, in typical island fashion the lift used to put the boat in the water was broken. We had taken Spy Hop to the Shipyard, to get the motor serviced in preparation for whale season. It took til Monday afternoon for them to get the fork lift fixed. However, as soon as we came out of Leeward we found JoJo who wanted a ride to Pine Cay. There he branched off swam around then wanted a lift back! Before I went home Wake-to-Wake had used their drone to get these shots of me Bo and Scooter. Thank you so much Mark! How cool is this