Although all boat trips were cancelled Friday – Monday (24-27 August), I did have a great talk on Monday evening with this week’s guests. They had not even seen the dolphins yet, but they were engaged and eager to learn and share dolphin stories. Still, it was great to be back on the water Tuesday afternoon. I think it is safe to say that the guests agree! Although there was still a rolling swell keeping us on our toes, thankfully the dolphins were out and about and their surfing path took them right to us! Despite the fact that they were not all that interested in us or the boat, they did come to the bow now and then. The real show came as they surfed the swells and leapt repeatedly. At one point, the dolphins (there were at least 25) all seemed to line up and as we scratched our heads wondering what they were up to, one jerked and they all shot in opposite directions. I wonder what they were up to….
It was challenging to identify individual dolphins with the rough seas, but I did see Split Jaw (#22), Addie (#84), Inka (#93) and un-named #s 24, 40 and 75. We were hopeful we’ll see even more in the final days of the week…
And we certainly did make up for lost time. On Wednesday we headed out again and saw more than a dozen dolphins, both spotteds and bottlenose. The water wasn’t very clear, but we did see Juliette (#12) and, maybe, Milo (#96) and un-named #70. The day ended with an bonus bottlenose sighting! Thursday was out last chance of the week to see dolphins and once again we were successful. This time, the day began with a bottlenose-only sighting which was soon followed up by a spotted group, which were in turn joined by bottlenose! It was a bit of a boys’ club with Buster (#04), Lumpy (#17), Split Jaw (#22) and un-named #24 and 75. As we returned to the harbor, we had another last minute bottlenose sighting – but this was even closer to the wire than yesterday!
It was a challenging start to the week, but boy did it end well. Thanks to this week’s guests for their patience and to the dolphins for making up for lost time!
Until next time,
Kel