Our last day on the Island

Hi All, The Discovery people have left with all their gear. We get one day to ourselves before heading home. We invite our friends, Robin, Abby and Suz out on the boat. John is adament that we don't stay out long. I had a rough night in dialysis and got home late. The dialysis center insisted I don't go out in the sun (oh well). We tour around looking for dorsals. I'm just taking in the gorgeous water, the sun, the view. There is nothing like this color anywhere. The thought of the cold dark water in New England is troublesome. Just as we get back to Leeward, we see some boats clustered together and there are Bo and Scooter. I get in and Scooter comes right up happy to see me. She's playing with a stick on the bottem just like a dog would play with a stick. She then picks up some seaweed in her mouth and swims around with it. Her dolphin jewelry. She wants me to see it. I invite the girls in to swim with her and Bo. My friends are so excited to see them up close. They are so beautiful.They are over the top excited to get the opportunity to swim with a mother and calf and be so close to them. Scooter in the mean time has found my flipper of interest. She's biting at it. I'm very surprised because no dolphin has ever even tried to touch me. John is wondering if he wanted to hold my flipper like we see the calves holding their mom's pecs in their mouths. I wish I could stay longer and play with her. I would have footage of all this but we had another camera clitch. It takes us awhile to get it all right! Boat, cameras, dolphins and scooters all working at the same time:) We hope to come back for Thanksgiving. I hope Scooter will still be with Bo. I hope more than anything JoJo will be ok! Next time I write a blog it will be to tell you how to watch the episode on Discovery Channel!!!

It's a Wrap

Hi All, It's been a whirlwind 5 days but, we had a great last day with JoJo joining Bo and Scooter. The Discovery Channel under water camera man got lots of great video of the three of them and me. Our day starts with finding JoJo and taking him up and down the coast until he branchs off at Pine Cay. Matt the camera man and I get in and JoJo spends a long time checking out the camera. He's particularily interested in the bubbles from Matt's tank. JoJo moves off to check the area or do some fishing. I am so hoping that JoJo is waiting for others because he stays in this area for a long time. We get to sit and watch the laughing gulls as they circle us and occasionally come for closer inspection. I assume people are feeding them off their boats because the gulls get so close. It appears JoJo has moved off so we head back toward Grace Bay hoping to run into JoJo or Bo and Scooter. The Discovery boat has gone ahead and they radio that they have found Bo and Scooter. We rush off to find meet. The dolphins are lazily coming our way. I get in and have a great time with both. Scooter is so playful swimming in circles around me. A ton of boats show up to watch. Scooter puts on a nice show spy hoping, swimming upside down and cavorting about.

They move off a little leaving the boats behind and I follow. JoJo shows up and we swim together following Bo and Scooter. If they had scripted an ending it couldn't have been better than that!

I had a first, where Scooter came up and nudged me! I never touch the dolphins ever, but if they want to touch me that's different. I hope Matt the camera man got it on film. She was very deliberate the way she came over and nudged me with her rostrum. She was so close that my camera didn't really get it. My camera is on the left side of my head and she was on the right side when she touched me, making it impossible to see. I really hope people don't start touching her. I know with JoJo that ended badly when an ignorant, probably drunk tourist tried to stick a beer bottle down is blow hole. From then on he didn't want people to touch him. He would either slap them with his tail or bite them if they tried. Unfortunatley, today we heard one boat captain encouraging his people to touch her. I wish people respected the dolphins. We are so fortunate that they let us into their lives. The least we can do is show some respect for them.