An increase in wind and sea conditions led to an early departure south.
But everyone woke (or rather 'got out of bed') with a sunny attitude. And we had dolphins by the boat at about 8:00 AM. We were taken by surprise with having them so close to us. Literally about 2 meters from the stardboard side of the Hanky Panky. They turned out to be two mother/calf pairs. I recognized #42 and her calf but the other adult female will require photo-identification (i.e., matching of slides). She did have a male calf that I'd seen two weeks ago. These two pairs were wave surfing and playing around the sea floor. They were pulling little gobi's and tile fish from the sand and snacking. The calves were also chasing the horse-eyed jacks and seemed to be practicing their echolocation clicks. We swam with these four dolphins for about 10 minutes. The afternoon brought us again to the sugar wreck … and four turtles seen! Quite friendly this time around. There was also no current so we did not have to swim too hard to see the wreck sprawled out at our mooring. The evening brought us to Sandy Cay since the winds and seas did not abate. One more day to see dolphins and then we head back to port. Hopefully we will see a few more friends. Cheers Kathleen