Tag: older content

Filled with Errands  Today was spent off the boat, finishing up a little bit of data and being domestic as we cleaned the apartment and ran errands. The island is EXTREMELY busy (for Bimini) as boaters from Florida fill every possible slip at every possible dock for the US holiday weekend. Seems a bit silly but this is a great spot to spend the 4th of July weekend. There should be parades, fireworks and other festive activities.

Good trip to end the week     Today was the last trip with this group of fabulous passengers! Thanks to them for such a great week–they were very interested in our work, respectful of the dolphins, and flexible and good spirited as related to the weather.     Today we first sighted dolphins at 17:17 and last saw… Continue reading Good Weather

But, the afternoon turned out beautifully!This morning we had an extra dolphin trip, with passengers who were just with us on the boat for the day. Unfortunately for them, the east wind had only strengthened, leaving us with uncomfortably rough seas. We were able to see a group of at least 8 bottlenose dolphins not far from shore. We observed them for about 10 minutes before braving the seas and heading north in hopes of finding spotteds.

A snorkel stop at Atlantis, but no dolphins This afternoon started with our weekly presentation on DCP to our passengers. And we have to say, we have had a great week with a group of thoroughly excited guests, who are eager to swim with these graceful animals, yet hold the highest respect for them and their ocean home. Just the kind of people we like to have aboard and just the kind of people that make our presentation worthwhile.

But we head out to the dolphin grounds anyway…   Today we headed out to the dolphin grounds hoping the seas would calm down. Unfortunately the east wind continued strong, and once out of the protection of the island, the seas were a bit uncomfortable. But, we held strong and were able to observe a group of approximately 10 spotteds, including #1, #17 (Lumpy) and we think #15 (Freckles). 6 of the animals, including those three, didn’t stick around long.

We’ll see how the footage comes outToday was Day 1 of a full Dolphin Week. These passengers will be with us on the boat through Thursday—and if the rest of the week goes as well as today, we’ll have a LOT of video to go through next week! We also had a reporter onboard from the Tampa CBS affiliate.

2 Uninterested Spotteds Today was an “extra” trip, not the start of the dolphin week. We had a great group of passengers who were on the boat just for today. That always adds a little extra pressure for our boat crew to hopefully find dolphins. We did find a group of 2-3 spotteds at 18:16, but they were not interested in the boat. There were mackerel in the area, and although it did not exactly look like the dolphins were feeding, they did seem more interested in the fish than us.