Wednesday began with a DCP talk to the Sea Crest passengers. They asked wonderful and insightful questions and we really enjoyed our time with them: thank you! In the afternoon we headed out for our dolphin trips and yet again, DCP was split between two trips. Kel headed out early at 13:21 and guests enjoyed a snorkel at “3 Sisters” rocks. From there we went in search of dolphins and we didn’t need to search for long! We came upon a group of six bottlenose at 15:35 and got two dolphin swims, one long and one short. Then, almost as soon as we left the bottlenose, we found a group of spotteds! At first there were only a handful of dolphins, and then the group size grew to nine and, at one point, 12 dolphins. The dolphins included Swoosh (#36), Tim (#69), Addie (#84), un-named #43, #75 and #93, and possibly Lil Jess (#35) and Niecey (#48). During the first of two swims with the spotted dolphins, the mixed age group was busy playing with a filefish. The poor thing didn’t seem too happy about it! Late in the day we saw another group of four bottlenose dolphins (it might have been some of the same individuals as earlier in the day, but photo-ID will confirm that). The bottlenose didn’t seem too interested in the boat so we continued on our way home.
Alexis and Sabena also had a successful day! We headed out at 15:36 and found our first group at 16:35, which was composed of one bottlenose and three spotteds, including Lone Star (#56) and 2 calves! (Wonder who she was babysitting for….) We found a second group of 5-7 spotteds at 17:54, including Lone star (#56) once again, but we lost sight of the group pretty quickly. We soon found a group that varied from two to eight spotteds, including possibly Romeo (#10). After we jumped in with them and had a nice encounter, the dolphins swam away. We found the same group of eight again at 18:43 and by the time we got in the water we had between 15-20 dolphins swimming under us! We enjoyed one last quick swim with the dolphins and then started heading to shore at 19:15. Hopefully tomorrow will be as exciting as today!
Until then,
Alexis, Sabena & Kel