Today we finished the video pretty early on in the day, so we also went through the bottlenose photo identification catalog. Kelly had created this 22 dolphin catalog and Maria went through and looked at each picture to see if there seemed to be any repeated or incorrectly placed photographs. It was looking a little cloudy outside, suddenly the weather cleared up and we decided to go on an impromptu trip to East Wells on an inflatable boat.
Category: Bimini 2007
Video? Check.
Today and yesterday we spent most of our time doing video, since no boat trips were on the schedule. Other than getting a good chunk of video done, we managed to finally get our phone installed! We weren’t sure we would ever see the day that someone could actually call us at our house instead of riding our bikes for communication, but luckily, that day is here. We should be able to finish video tomorrow. Until then, Maria &
No dolphins
No dolphins and no phone installation. We should probably just assume we won’t have a phone; that way when it is eventually hooked up, we’ll be so pleasantly surprised! Since we didn’t have any boat trips scheduled and had already logged a video, we decided to take a swim in the ocean which was perfectly calm and clear. Just as we were getting out, Kel and one of the locals on shore spotted a fin coming towards us in the water.
E.T. no phone home
We are still waiting for our phone to be hooked up. We started the morning early with a trip to the phone company before our morning phone link to the aquarium. It was a small crowd, but good to “see” Kristy & Tabby, DCP’s new intern. Then it was home for a quick lunch before visiting the local Catholic school. The teachers & students were very welcoming & armed with lots of good questions. Later that day, we were met on the street by smiling children who thanked us for the visit.
Some time to relax
Well, our hopes for a walk-in dolphin trip for Saturday were not met. But, on Friday, Maria was able to join one of Bimini Undersea’s snorkel trips and see some of Bimini’s ocean life beyond the dolphins. Kel spent the day attempting to sort out our phone hook-up (or lack thereof). Simple tasks like this usually work on island time as well! Then, we had dinner with some of the dolphin week passengers and will be sad to see them go!
A little bit of everything
We started off our trip with a clear sky but choppy waters. Right off the island we spotted some very playful bottlenose dolphins and decided to try to swim with them. To our surprise, they did not swim away (bottlenose tend to be more shy than the spotteds in this area) but instead gave us a few good looks. We even saw a mother and calf! We finished with that encounter and continued looking for other groups.
An electric trip
Today’s weather was filled with storms & squalls, but nothing too bad. The boat went out as scheduled, but returned early. Why, you ask? Well, we had our first experience with well charged surroundings! As the boat crew was preparing to anchor at the snorkel stop of the day, we noticed that everyone’s hair was literally standing straight up. Then, the radio antenna began to hum. So, the boat & radio were immediately turned off, with everyone instructed not to touch anything metal!
Dolphin Extravaganza!
Today we started the day with a trip to Gateway Academy, one of the local schools, to check in with the principal about our upcoming visit and presentation. That is scheduled for the 12th of June and we are very excited! Then it was another follow up with the phone company but still no luck. After a quick lunch at home, we headed to the dock for our weekly presentation. It was a small but interested crowd. The boat then left at 1500 and by 1700 we were with the spotteds.
Trip 15
This morning we did the phone link to the aquarium. It was a quiet audience but Kristy asked a lot of questions, so we got to share some stories about our trip. Then we checked in at the phone company about getting a phone installed in the new apartment. In typical island fashion, the credit card machine isn’t working, so we will have to wait for it to be fixed to get our telephone. The boat left at 1500 and started the day with a murky snorkel stop at Atlantis.
Clear Skies
Today the clouds finally broke up, but the wind persisted which cancelled the boat trip… or so we thought! After leaving the marina and heading to the beach, we were tracked down by some of the Bimini Undersea staff to tell us that the wind had died down and we would be going out. We rushed back to the dock and left for an afternoon of searching for the dolphins. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see any dolphins, but Maria got to learn how to use the GPS and track our positioning.
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