Day 5 and 6 - July 1st and 2nd

Yesterday and this morning I got the chance to swim with dolphins! There is a boat that goes out daily for dolphin snorkels and we videotape the experience for customers. The dolphins we see are Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins, named thus because they like to spin around when they breach the water and are the only type of dolphin that does this naturally.

Yesterday the dolphins were pretty far south and in deeper water which made it harder to follow them while snorkeling and hard to get a good picture that didn't turn out all blue, mostly because you could not get very close to them.

We got to watch Jim work with the camera and the dolphins which was different from the other days because this snorkel adventure is in a much larger and open environment, making it difficult to know when and where the animals will surface for air and to time that and get good shots and also get shots of the customers snorkeling, I was very impressed at how easily he moved through the water and how he "knew" just where they dolphins would go.

Today Richard and I got to go again, but just by ourselves, so it was more like a play day. As we pulled out of the harbor this morning there was a "traffic jam" because there is a huge fishing tournament going on this weekend. What seemed like hundreds of boats were sitting just outside the harbor waiting for the count down to start fishing. We moved a little bit away and listened over the radio as they gave the countdown and then all the boats started cruising away in search of big fish.



Today we caught up with the dolpin pod farther north and in shallower water which was amazing because as they swam past they could not dive down deep and at least 60 dolphin swam past me from arms length to about 10 feet away. This was a much better environment for pictures, but also a quick one. At that location the dolphin are just lazily swimming along towards a bay they like to rest in so you only get a quick chance to snap off several pictures before they are gone.


After that we followed them south towards the same bay they were in yesterday. As we drove along the dolphin cruised with us, surfing on the wake in front of the boat. They do this because it helps push them along and they don't have to use as much energy. Similarily to yesterday the deeper water in the bay made it harder to get pictures of the dolphin. However it is an amazing experience and so much fun to watch them swim around.

Yesterday and so far this evening I got the night time off. We went out to dinner yesterday then I fell into definate REM cycle fast on the couch while watching Finding Nemo. Today we may wander into town or just hang out and read my book.