A Weatherful Beginning

Lots of Squalls … but also one dolphin sighting.

An intense flash of light followed by a loud crack of thunder woke me at 5:00 AM while we were still at port. The clouds were thick and covered the entire sky. In fact, this was the first morning that we were note greeted by the sun. It is a bit odd not to see the sun bright and early in the Bahamas … but rain does visit, however rarely. The rain let up for us to do a snorkel check out in the pool of the Xanadu Hotel. The Hanky Panky is docked at the marina for the hotel when we are in port. A nice pool and likely originally designed by Howard Hughes (He owned this hotel in its 'hey day'.) Everyone did well – we have several divers aboard this week. We left port at about 10:30 AM and began our journey north. West End came into view about 2.5 hours later and our ride was wet and bouncy. Still, we saw a group of 5 bottlenose dolphins just off Settlement Point, the western tip of West End. One had half a pectoral fin and another had a chopped off dorsal fin. I'd seen these individuals in previous years. Our day ended much as it began – with a massive squall. Actually, we had a wave caught between a low and high pressure system that kept clouds over us most of the evening. We were off effort (active searching for dolphins) from 4:30 PM till 7:00 PM. A lively game of Uno kept many of us going for part of the evening. Cheers Kathleen