Category: Bimini 2005

The morning was domestic; the afternoon was filled with dolphins!     Today was definitely a productive one! We spent the morning doing some much needed housework, which included washing all of our bathing suits in the tub. It was quite a sight! But, for the record, Darcie definitely gets the award for the most suits (and cute ones at that!).

Looks like it will be a good week…     Today was Day 1 in a four day dolphin week. We welcomed our passengers, some of whom have been here before. They were very enthusiastic and we headed out shortly after 15:30. “Destiny,” our normal “dolphin boat,” is currently out of commission, so “Adventurer” is our vessel this week. Adventurer is normally used for Bimini Undersea’s SCUBA trips, but the dolphins don’t seem to mind the change.

You must be organized before you can start things, right? Each time we go in the water with the MVA, one of us is also in the water trying to get still photos of the dolphins. The success rate doing this is quite low, but with the joy of digital photography, nothing lost, nothing gained. But, about 1 in every 25 photos we take actually does come out and greatly enhances our digital photo-ID catalog. But of course, all of these photos have to be identified and organized, both by trip and by animal.

Dolphin-Free Zone Today was our “dolphin-free” day. We try to make sure we take one day completely off each week. This morning we visited with a friend who practices “watsu” (not sure how to spell this) and she gave each of us a treatment on the beach. It was a nice way to relax and was probably great for our circulation! Then it was a couple of hours on a friend’s boat…went free diving at a couple of places and then relaxed at a snorkel/dive site called Turtle Rocks.

We head out, even with the east wind roaring.The weather forecast wasn’t exactly correct. Shocking, huh? We were hoping the wind would drop to about 5 knots, and it did—at about 19:00! Our passengers were good sports though and we were able to swim with two mother-calf pairs. They were not terribly interactive with us, but they did allow us to observe them in the water. We saw both calves nursing as well as some unusual sand rubbing by one mother.

But maybe tomorrow will be better!   Since there was no trip yesterday, we spent part of the day catching up on video logs and data entry and the other part of the day out on a friend’s boat. It was a nice random trip out and provided some much needed relaxation.

We spend a morning apart!     Today’s morning trip did go out. Kel went alone, because, after flipping a coin, Darcie was staying behind for a phone call with Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration at 13:00. It was with a group of young girls, participating in a camp at the aquarium. They were very inquisitive, bright aspiring scientists who asked many questions and kept Darcie on her toes. Darcie even got through the call without a single technical difficulty!
The trip was rough, but not dangerous.

Hurricane Emily continues to bring slightly too strong winds…     After assessing various radar screens and weather predictors, passengers decided to postpone today’s afternoon trip until tomorrow morning. We are pleased with that decision, because the weather is just as rough as yesterday. The trip is tentatively rescheduled for tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m.

We say so, but a short, unsuccessful one.   “I’m not sure about this way of life I’ve bought into. Mother Nature is the keeper…and there’s not a thing I can do about it.”
–    An Embarrassment of Mangoes

So, that pretty well sums up the day. The winds were strong (15 mph, if not higher) coming out of the east, which can mean deception. When the wind comes from the east, the island shelters you while on the boat west of the island.

So we’ll kayak instead!When you are living in a place because of work, you often don’t do the “touristy” things that others come to the island to do. One of these things is a place called the “healing hole.” All of East Bimini is mangroves—this means that it is inhabitable, basically without solid ground. It is a buggy area, with murky water that is home to a variety of fish and insects. In this area, there is a small, fresh water, lithium spring.