I hear a tiny splash and a whoosh. Rocking gently side to side, I am lying under a single sheet that feels cool when I lift it. My eyes slowly open and my ears listen for another whoosh. There it is, farther away.
I sit up and look out the porthole, toward the bright east. The water is dark and smooth, only small and gentle waves washing toward shore.
The sky is growing lighter as I look, the outline of the palm trees on the island taking on color, the white sand of the narrow beach glowing brighter each moment.
The whoosh again, with a little splash...
I slip into a pair of swimming trunks and swing up the ladder to the deck. The cabin between the hulls is quiet. Then I see a head bobbing in the water and a grin shining up at me. It is one of our passengers, the woman from San Francisco who is trying to stir her creative juices again. Very athletic, she doesn’t surprise me by being the first one up and in the water. Her frenetic energy usually keeps her moving constantly, but this morning she seems relaxed.
I watch her grinning to herself, her legs moving slowly, waving her long swim fins gracefully beneath the surface.
The whoosh comes again, this time just on the opposite side of the boat. Spinning smoothly, Marley looks and ducks under, her body arcing down, her suit and fins flashing before they disappear into the dark blue.
I move to the rail and watch her beautiful dancer's body undulating in a perfect Dolphin kick, her legs together, her arms at her sides.
As she flows toward the bottom, the gray and black shape of a Dolphin joins her. They spiral once, the Dolphin moving quickly past her. She stops and watches as the Dolphin rotates lengthwise and then seems to fold in half as it turns back toward her.
The Dolphin pauses, its pectoral fins waving, then stopping. It turns its head side to side. It is scanning Marley, looking her over. Satisfied, the Dolphin dives lower, skimming the bottom, rolling over and exposing her spotted belly, passing just beneath Marleys legs.
Marley tucks her legs up, bending at the waist, moving herself quickly to follow the Dolphin. She kicks her legs and glides along, parallel to the Dolphin, who is moving slowly. Together, they glide among the large coral blocks, rotating slowly around each other. Marley reaches the end of her air and she rises to the surface without moving her arms or legs, floating up to breathe. The Dolphin watches her, then pumps its tail twice and flashes away, disappearing into the dark blue that is now becoming turquoise...
Marleys face breaks the surface twenty feet from the boat, her head tilted back, hair streaming around her, eyes closed, a smile suffusing her features.
The water barely ripples around her. The sun is just about to break thru the low clouds on the horizon, light streaking across the sky.
Graceful ballet, made of living dreams, just before dawn on this morning in paradise...
We are on a Dolphin swim trip, an organized week of Humans on a modern catamaran, making the special effort required to encounter Dolphins in the wild. In this case, we are in the Bahamas, in shallow waters that almost burn your eyes with the brilliance of the turquoise blue. Here, the Spotted Dolphins have become used to the presence of Humans.
An etiquette has been developed here, partly due to official pressures but mostly developed by the boat captains themselves.
We motor out to the area where we know Dolphins are often found. Cruising back and forth, turning around every few miles, we trace a grid across the area. We know that the shallow waters here, about 18-22 feet deep, are part of the plateau that supports the Bahamas, while nearby is a deep channel with a powerful current. There the cooler waters rise, along the edge of the plateau, bringing food up for fish to eat, making a rich banquet for the Dolphins. They cross the area we are cruising on their way to and fro. This gives us the near certainty of finding Dolphins and finding them in an active, well fed condition.
Cruising, we look ahead and see dorsal fins cutting through the water.
Will they want to play with us?
We head toward them and they swing around to intercept us. They join our boat amidst a chorus of shouts and whistles and excited laughter, the crew and passengers exuberant and happy. The Dolphins pick up the excitement and happily play in the bow waves. Between the forward hulls of the Catamaran is hung an open net, suspended like a trampoline. Several of us are gathered there, hanging just inches above the adventurous Dolphins who swim between the hulls.
We cut the engine and drift to a rocking stop. The Dolphins stay with us, the next sign they want to play. We watch for a minute or so and they remain, so we send in the first person, our “sacrificial victim” consigned to the deep as bait for Dolphin games!
If the Dolphins really want to play, they will remain and begin swarming around the first swimmer.
They seem to like the first one in, so we all put on our gear as fast as we can, excited and jabbering. Splash, Splash....we leap in, holding our masks to our faces, adjusting them quickly and then diving down.
There, in the infinite blue world, is a mingling of Dolphins. Down below are three who are cruising together. Just ahead is one who looks interested in me, and she comes quickly past me. As I watch her go by, I see another Dolphin who has stationed himself two feet below me. I didn’t know he was there. As I breathe again, preparing to dive, he rises and takes a breath. We dive together. He spins as he goes down, watching me. I bend, push my feet up and head down, powering toward the bottom. When I see the Dolphin spinning I begin to spin myself. Just as I lose sight of my friend, another Dolphin streaks past, squeaking as she shoots by. I continue diving down, and twist to see who is nearby. I clear my ears quickly and then pause...
Off in the distance are three swimmers and five Dolphins, swirling in a mass of bright suits, brighter fins and masks, gray and black bodies and millions of bubbles. One of the swimmers dives and all five Dolphins dive alongside, crowding each other to see who can be closest to the swimmer.
The Dolphin I followed down has circled and is hanging still, facing me. He seems curious, looking me over and scanning me with his sonar. I feel a mild tingle course through me. I hold up my hand in front of me, my fingers spread. I hold it still, about four feet from him and wiggle my fingers slowly. He seems interested, watching me closely. He fans his fins and comes slowly closer, his rostrum following the movements of my fingers. Almost touching me, he stops. Then, in a movement I cannot follow, he is diving down and away, fast. Somehow he turned and dove before I could see how he did it...
He swims away, almost as far as I can see. I rise to the surface to breathe without lifting my face, so I can watch for him. He turns and comes back as I dive again. This time another Dolphin is beside him, just behind. As I watch him come, I take a good look and realize this is an older Dolphin. Spotted Dolphins get more covered with spots as the years go by, and this one has spots on top of spots...
The one with him is younger, with only a slight scattering of spots on its belly. They approach fast, in tight formation, zooming past me and down. Heading straight for the bottom, they turn at about two feet from it and spin around to head in another direction. I dive toward them, as fast as I can swim. They barely notice me, pumping their tails hard and disappearing away into the blue.
I surface listening to all the squeals and laughter around me. Going under again, I look to see what is happening with my group. Dolphins are swarming on the bottom, beneath them. Perhaps nine Dolphins are there, looking up at the five swimmers above them. One dives and the Dolphins scatter, some heading up to look at swimmers, the rest heading away. In a quick minute every Dolphin has disappeared, swimming away in the same direction.
We gather at the back of the boat, most laughing and speaking at once. Two of us are quiet. I am deeply happy, feeling on top of the world and quite content to feel and think and cherish the moment. The rest are telling each other of their encounters, the feelings of being scanned, the silly games the Dolphins played, the excitement of the first eye-to-eye contact.
Chattering, they all climb on board. I hold back, treading water easily. In my mind is the image of the Dolphin watching my hand. As I recall those brief instants, I see the Dolphin in my mind, watching me. He has his mouth slightly open, his pectoral fins are waving slowly. One stops, the other rises up toward me...then the memory is lost in a haze of movement, bubbles and blue water.
I lift myself onto the dive deck at the back of the boat with a satisfied feeling. Inside my head is a distinct memory that is intriguing and exciting, while my body feels languid, lazy and in need of lying down.
This is our third day out, so I am able to rest in the shade while the talking goes on around me. The first two days were filled with lots of me talking, a quick course in Dolphin swim etiquette, some biological information about them, making sure everyone is a strong swimmer and then the over-the top excitement of the first encounters.
I notice the woman who was quiet in the water, sitting apart. Her head is bowed and I see that she is quietly crying. I rest a few minutes, then make my way to her, trying to not attract attention to her as I go. On a fifty four foot boat, with fourteen people, it is not easy to find privacy.
I hunker down beside her and put my hand on her shoulder. She turns a teary face to me, a smile shining through the tears.
I ask, “Do you want to talk?”
She smiles and shakes her head, then pauses and looks again at me and says, “You know, don’t you? You know this is such an important thing, don’t you? The Dolphins want us to wake up and pay attention!”
I smile in return, nodding.
She goes on, “I wasn’t feeling totally good this morning, my tummy was upset and I wasn’t sure I would get in, but then they just seemed to draw me in. I just paddled away from the boat a little ways watching everyone else and then put my mask down in the water and one of the Dolphins was right there! She was watching me from about three feet below me, and I realized that we were the silliest looking creatures imaginable, all covered up and with these plastic things on our feet and heads. I wanted to take my suit off, throw away my mask and fins and just be naked with them. I wanted to be rid of all my things, my belongings, my worries about who was watching, what they think about me and even why I was doing what I was doing.”
“And all the Dolphin was doing was watching me. I dove down to see her and she stayed beside me. I was frustrated by the mask because I felt my eyes were inside a tunnel and I couldn’t let her see me looking at her. I was just thinking this when she turned and came up in front of me. All I could see was the side of her, her gray skin and the spots on her belly and then she moved and her eye was looking right at me!”
“There was nothing else I could see, just her one eye. She moved it! She was looking at me! She looked inside my mask....she stared at me and it felt like she liked what she saw! I was so shocked, I hardly knew what to do. Then I realized I really didn’t know what to do...”, laughing, her tears began to flow again. She looked at me, searching my face to see if I was receptive to this explosion of words.
