Today was another day of split up boat trips. Alexis and Brittany headed out at 13:06 and within 20 minutes saw a group of about 10 eagle rays swimming by! After we watched them for a bit we moved on to 3 Sisters for our snorkel swim. After a long and relaxing snorkel break we headed out in search of the dolphins! It took us a while, but we eventually saw a group of over 20 spotted dolphins and at least one bottlenose in the distance! Within this group we saw Trudy (#57), Romeo (#10), and Swoosh (#36) with her calf! We also saw at least 5 other calves in the group. The group was moving too fast for us to get in; however they were almost putting on a show for us, with the youngsters doing lots of tail slaps, jumping, and pec rubbing! We followed the group for a while and it eventually evolved into dolphins scattered in every direction. We thought one of the groups slowed down enough for us to hop in with them and have a little swim, but they briefly investigated us and then paid us no mind. So we hopped back on the boat and continued following the scattered groups. The dolphins apparently thought it would be fun to play games with us. They would be moving in one direction and then swim underwater and pop up in a completely different direction! We zigzagged around the ocean for almost 2 hours before we realized that we were not going to win this game. We headed back toward the dock at 18:49 and called it a day. Kel’s trip started at 15:45 and they immediately went in search of dolphins. They saw a group late in the afternoon, slightly after 1800. In that group there were 4-5 spotted dolphins including Leslie (#80) and her calf, another mother/calf pair and possibly Addie (#84). They got in for a quick swim, and everyone got a nice glimpse of the mothers and calves. They left the dolphins soon after their swim and headed back to shore around 19:10. Hopefully, tomorrow will bring more dolphins and longer underwater observations!
Until then,
Alexis, Brittany, and Kel