BAHAMAS
After much anticipation, I
arrived in sunny West Palm Beach on Sunday morning
ready for another incredible week on the Dream Too.
Although the trip last month was good in spite of
the uncooperative weather, I was hoping for seven
perfect days. Guests trickled in throughout the day
and we gathered at the "manatee bar" for slow
service. There was no rush--the boat wouldn't leave
the dock until 9:00 P.M. After dinner we got our briefing
and settled into a movie ("The Big Blue"--a boat
tradition). Capt. Scott gave us the good news:
weather was supposed to be good. We pushed off the
dock just after nine and made our way East. The
Gulf Stream crossing was not exactly smooth (it
rarely is) but it wasn't too bad either. We arrived
at West End, Grand Bahama in the middle of the
night and awoke to a great breakfast that Julie
prepared for us while Scott took our passports over
to customs. Scott returned with the
paperwork all set and we headed off to the dolphin
grounds. We made it out to White Sand Ridge (where
the dolphins hang out) by noon. After lunch, we did
a dive on the Sugar Wreck (a hundred year old
molasses steamer with more fish on it that you can
imagine) and saw pretty much every fish in the I.D.
guide! Then we headed out to look for dolphins.
Within an hour, we found a small pod of dolphins
and got in with them for about an hour. I was able
to empty both of my Nikonos cameras (one with a 20
mm lens and the other with a 15 mm). The water was
extremely clear!! Everyone got close and had
excellent encounters but I kept telling the group
that it can get a lot better than that. We did
another dive on the sugar wreck late that day and I
looked for the elusive sponge crab that I've been
trying to find for ages. No luck! That evening, we
watched the ultimate dive boat movie (South Park:
Bigger, Longer, Uncut) and the gang rolled in
laughter as we tried to remember the insults. We
found ourselves humming the theme song for the rest
of the week, and it certainly set an informal tone
for the group. We tucked into an area behind a
sand bar for the night and awoke the next morning
to head over to Robin's Reef for a morning dive.
WOW! What a great dive site full of swim throughs
and passageways with miles and miles of healthy
coral. It was only 50 feet deep and we could stay
down for a long time exploring endless nooks and
crannies. After the dive, we set out to
find dolphins. Within a short period of time, Scott
and Robin found us a big pod and soon we rushed to
the bow to cheer as the dolphins raced in the bow
wave and seemed to compete for the best spot.
Finally Sarah asked "Anyone want to go in with
them?" We scrambled into our gear and lined up on
the back deck as Scotty slowed the engines and put
them into neutral. At last he leaned out the
wheelhouse window and gave us the OK sign. We
opened the gate and jumped into the blue. Within
seconds the dolphins surrounded us whistling and
clicking, moving past quickly only to turn and come
back again. The calm surface conditions made the
encounter nearly perfect and completely
magical. I soon found myself being
circled by two dolphins that moved closer and
closer, staring me in the eye and I completely
forgot about my camera. I just turned around and
around in a circle as the dolphins circled me. I
wondered "Will they let me touch them?" Scotty told
us that some will let you touch and some won't. If
they want you to touch, they will let you. If they
don't want you to touch, you haven't got a chance
at touching them. It never hurts to try. The worst
that happens is they move away. So I reached out my
hand. The dolphin closed her eyes and relaxed. I
pet her gently along her side and she loved it!
What an incredible experience! I couldn't believe I
was actually petting a totally wild dolphin! Soon,
the other dolphin got jealous and pushed her aside,
nudging his way in closer and flipping upside down.
I rubbed his tummy for a few minutes and finally
they moved on to play with someone else. The dolphins stayed with us for
four hours. Every once in a while they took a break
and raced to the bottom to catch a couple of fish,
but then they came back as spunky as ever. We got
to the point that all the scooter batteries had
died. Scott and Sarah got out. We expected the
dolphins to leave once the scooter was out of the
water, but three of the dolphins stayed. I shot
four rolls of film and still had plenty of
"interaction" time. It's great to watch people when
they run out of film and decide to simply play for
a while. Eddd had his 3D cameras with him all
morning but when he finally ran out of loaded
cameras, he was like a kid free-diving with the
dolphins and petting them as they swam by. We can't
wait to see Eddd's 3D pictures! Ralph made us all
look like amateurs with his far superior
free-diving technique and grace in the water. The
dolphins played endlessly with him as he held his
breath and swam down to the bottom with them. Who
needs a scooter? Donna asked me on the first day to
try to get a picture of her with the dolphins and I
had no problems getting a couple good frames. I
hope they come out as well as they looked in the
viewfinder. After we were too waterlogged to
stand it anymore, the dolphins finally realized it
was time to move on. We dragged ourselves out of
the water and spent the better part of an hour just
standing around on the back deck reliving the
experience. Later, Al and Donna plugged their video
cameras into the TV in the salon and we watched the
whole thing over again. There is no doubt that this
one afternoon was worth it for the whole trip
alone. For certain, it's a once in a lifetime
experience! But the fun didn't end there.
The crew thought they could wear us out! No way. We
did a late afternoon dive at Muriel's Garden where
we saw some sharks and Miriam got some good stills
on her new digital camera. Alicia found a turtle
and Al got some good video. Then we did a night
dive on the Sugar Wreck. I spent the entire dive
looking for a sponge crab and never found it. I
shot nearly my entire roll but left a few frames
just in case I found it on the way back to the
boat. I got out of the water, rinsed my suit and
just as I was getting ready to jump into the
shower, Sarah knocked on the bathroom
door. "Jonathan! Ralph found your
sponge crab!" I wasn't buying it. "Yeah, right!" was my answer
from the bathroom. Sounded like a classic prank to
me. "No, seriously, it's right under
the boat. He's waiting in the water to take you to
it!" Man, I jumped out of the shower
so fast that I left a vacuum in the spot where I
was standing. I grabbed my camera with only 3
frames left and my tank with 1000 PSI. Forget the
suit…takes too long. I rolled in and found
Ralph. He pointed and there it sat! The darned
thing was sitting right under the bow. I must've
swam past that sucker 10 times and didn't see it. I
spent a fair amount of time setting up each shot,
waiting for just the right time to shoot so I could
be sure to get a good one. I finished the roll and
hoped I had it. Thanks Ralph! After the dive, Scott told us
that we had a storm front heading in and we needed
to cruise back towards West End. Ominous storm
clouds appeared on the horizon, so we pulled anchor
and headed south. Three hours later we docked at
West End for the night. Wow, nice and calm, what a
great night's sleep. Wednesday and Thursday the winds
came from the North and we spent our time on the
protected (south) side of Grand Bahama. There
aren't many dolphins there, but we had plenty of
things to do. At "Cousteau's Reef" I spent the
entire dive lying on the sand shooting Jawfish as
they popped in and out of their burrows feeding on
plankton. We did two dives at Bootle Bay where we
found three turtles, squid, yellow skates and
morays out swimming. Thursday we did two dives at
"Bull Pen" where many different dive operators feed
the Caribbean Reef Sharks. We didn't even need to
feed them to have close photo encounters. Whenever
a boat shows up they think they are going to get
fed, so they come close. We liked that dive so much
that we stayed and did it again…except the
second time we actually fed the sharks a little.
They came even closer but we kicked up so much sand
in the process that the pictures are probably
better from the first dive. Friday the winds calmed and we
headed back up towards white sand ridge again. By
11:00 AM we had found a pod of dolphins and the
whole group was in the water. The first activity
was a game
of "bandana". This is a
game that Capt. Scott "invented" a few years ago
when he noticed that the dolphins sometimes played
"keep away" with a piece of seaweed or a sea fan.
The dolphins pick something up off the bottom and
swim around with it on their heads, flippers or
tails, sometimes passing it off to each other, or
sometimes trying to steal it from each other.
Scotty started playing the game with the dolphins
using a brightly colored bandana. He takes the
bandana in the water and waves it around until a
dolphin steals it from him, then the game begins!
The goal is to attempt to steal the bandana back
from the dolphins. I have to tell you, this game is
pretty much impossible to win unless the dolphins
want to let you have it back. Every once in a while
you might get close enough that you think you can
grab it, but when you reach out, the dolphin just
moves away one inch further than you can reach and
laughs in your face! It was my lucky day--a dolphin
felt sorry for me and came close enough that I
could grab it. I grabbed the bandana from his
flipper and howled a "yee haw!" into my snorkel,
thinking I was pretty darned fast, but really we
both knew the dolphin just gave it to me. I swam
down to the bottom, let go of the bandana and
headed to the surface. Another dolphin swooped in,
grabbed the bandana and the game began again. That
time it took nearly an hour to get it back. Scotty
reports that he has lost a few bandanas over the
years doing this. Sometimes they like the bandana
so much that they just don't give it
back! By 1:00 everyone was starving,
so we took a break for lunch when the dolphins got
the mid-day laziness. Within an hour, we were all
back in the water again, as Robin had found us
another group of dolphins. This group was still
pretty tired, so they swam nice and slow and let us
get close for pictures. We thought they would soon
leave, but instead they slowly woke up and our
afternoon adventure just kept getting better. By
4:00 I had gone through 6 or 7 rolls of film and
the dolphins were still at it. I told everyone that
I hoped to get some shots of the dolphins feeding
and we eventually ended up in a shallow area where
the water was only about 20 feet deep. The dolphins
started feeding in the sand, and the water was
shallow enough that I could free dive down and
spend enough time to get some shots. Then I decided
that since I was putting in requests, wouldn't it
be nice if they started mating! Sure enough, a few
minutes later, two dolphins started going at it! I
got right up close and fired a frame--my last frame
of the roll! What a crappy time to run out of film!
I hauled butt back to the boat, grabbed the next
camera and swam back out. As luck would have it,
they were still mating, and I was able to get some
shots! Next, I put in a request to capture a birth
on film, but they drew the line there. No births
this time. Maybe next year. After 7 hours in the water with
the dolphins, the sun was getting low and we were
all completely beat. It was time to head back to
West Palm. We dragged ourselves out of the water
and started cleaning up for dinner. After the
ladies voted on a chick flick (Anna and the King)
we made our way back to West Palm overnight. It was
a choppy but typical crossing. Overall, this was
one of the best trips of the year so far according
to the crew, and for sure, we certainly had no
complaints (except that we didn't get to see a
dolphin give birth of course….) Now if we can
just convince Eddd to give us a slide
show…. Check out Ralph's
Trip Report.... Check out some pictures of
the Bandana
Game!
How close can you get? This is a
self-portrait--shooting with my right hand and
petting with the left! This is a wild
dolphin! Can you believe this?
Ralph the master free-diver gets down on the bottom
with the dolphins!
At the "Bull Pen" a Caribbean Reef shark swims by
looking for some food. Even without treats we could
get great shots like this.
Gayle gets some topside pics from the bow as the
dolphins ride the bow wave.
The May 2002 gang and crew chowing down. (From
left, Alicia, Miriam, Ralph, Donna, Marlene,
Captain Scott, Eddd, Gayle, Julie, Jim, Sarah and
Al.)
Dolphins rushing to the bow for a free ride!
Ralph gets into the zero gravity thing!
Donna is getting some great video on that new
camera!
Last Update 7/29/02