We spend much time underwater observing. The 15 minutes was followed by a second 2.5 minutes with the same group of 6 dolphins. This third encounter was very special to me ... At first we saw two two-toned, class 2 calves. They were playful and mimicked out behaviour and swimming. They circled us and head scanned and clicked at us. The young seem most curious about our 'split-fins.' Then, the calves' moms swam into view. I recognized Hook (#78) immediately. She has a distinct notch just below the top of her dorsal fin on the trailing edge.
Not much interest in us - but another new calf seen and several large groups. We had a slow morning - only one sighting of a single bottlenose dolphin seen by Pepe and me at about 6:30 AM. I love mornings and routinely watch the sun rise out here on the water. The seas were a bit more choppy this morning. We did a dinghy search and found a couple of groups of spotted dolphins. They were more interested in bow-riding the boat rather than swimming with us.
King Neptune blessed our trip north with flat calm seas. Today was the first day at sea for our second trip out here. We had a sea state of zero or one. Amazingly calm with little wind at all. Our visibility was great and allowed us to observe at least 5 turtles breathing. The most common species observed here is the hawksbill. We stopped at the marina in West End to fuel up and have lunch and then continued north. Just after anchoring we saw a group of dolphins but they were not too interested in us.