On Tuesday, Kali and Ellyne set out again with the Bimini Adventures group visiting from Switzerland, as Kel returned to Bimini and caught up on paperwork. This group has given Kali the opportunity to brush up on her French skills. C’est bonne! We cruised merrily along in our search for dolphins. Some of the guests visiting have been coming to Bimini for years so they hoped to see dolphins they had seen in past years. For others this was their first time seeing a dolphin so they were excited at the idea of being in the water with them.
As we headed north, Captain Audley started to turn as though he saw something in the distance. Soon we saw another boat in the distance. Turns out they were out observing dolphins as well. They reported a group of twenty-five to thirty spotted dolphins! While our boat approached the larger group we had a group of four riding along the bow including Stefran (#82) and at least one calf. While the other boat was swimming with the larger dolphin group, we decided to get in and observe the few individuals swimming around our boat.
These individuals were very active. We observed them fluke slapping, playing with seaweed, and swimming quickly through the water. They stayed around us for a little bit but started to veer off towards the larger group. Everyone returned to the boat and we resumed looking for the dolphins we had seen before. For a little bit it seemed that the dolphins had somehow managed to disappear! This would be quite the feat considering how many of them there were, yet sometimes, this is exactly what they do. The boat continued to head in the direction we had last seen them. Eventually, out in the distance we saw some leaps and splashes. As we approached the few that had been jumping, dolphins quickly surrounded the boat. It was difficult to get a count on how many there were. We managed to count about thirty but there could have been more than that! Lil Jess (#35) and un-named #102 were seen in the group. Hopefully after reviewing the photos we will be able to identify more. The large group followed our boat around for a while as we started to head in towards the shore but once we attempted to get in and observe them they quickly headed off in the other direction. With that, we decided to go home feeling accomplished having seen so many dolphins.
A très bientôt (See you soon),
Kali, Ellyne & Kel