A snorkel stop at Atlantis, but no dolphins
This afternoon started with our weekly presentation on DCP to our passengers. And we have to say, we have had a great week with a group of thoroughly excited guests, who are eager to swim with these graceful animals, yet hold the highest respect for them and their ocean home. Just the kind of people we like to have aboard and just the kind of people that make our presentation worthwhile. This week we were able to hold the session in the hotel’s small conference room–the small, AIR CONDITIONED conference room. It was lovely! We gave a more thorough intro to DCP as well as our research topics before delving into a great Q&A and sharing with folks some photos of the dolphins from the electronic photo-ID catalog. A big thanks to our passengers for participating!
Today’s trip was pretty uneventful after a nice long snorkel stop at “Atlantis” (AKA Bimini Road). For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story behind this site, we’ll fill you, since we don’t have any info on the dolphins!
The preface to world-wide interest in the site goes back to a man named Edgar Casey (we’re not sure on the spelling), who was known as the “sleeping prophet.” This man made thousands of predictions in his time, one of which was that the first signs of Atlantis would be discovered off the coast of an island in the Bahamas called Bimini. He gave a timeline for this discovery, and sure enough, during the stated time period, an American pilot was flying over these waters, noticed a rock formation, and landed his plane. He sought out a local fisherman to take him to the stones…now, here’s the obvious: This American man did not “discover” these stones. The local fisherman knew exactly what he was talking about. But, he took underwater photographs to be published in the States, thereby drawing attention to the curious stone formation off this small island. Since then, it has been a major part of most people’s trips to Bimini. Various groups have even come down, running tests on the stones in an attempt to determine whether or not they are natural or man-made (or to go so far as to say part of Atlantis). So, snorkelers come here to decide for themselves….And that is the story of “The Bimini Road” in a nutshell.
Tomorrow we have a morning trip and an afternoon trip. It’ll be a LONG day.
Until then,
Kel and Darcie