Dolphins!!

       ‘No, that is a porpoise, it is too small to be a dolphin.’

But it seems to be splashing just a bit too much when we paddle closer. It is! It is a single dolphin! We are ecstatic! It is so close to the boat! The dolphin is hunting at quite a bit of speed in a large circle through the bay. There is a motorboat crossing its path, motoring just a few meters within the vicinity of the dolphin. We think the occupants of the boat have seen the dolphin as well! But no, they just motor along. Never noticing the fish at all. We are a bit annoyed, the motorboat may have scared the dolphin away because we don’t see a rise anywhere. Damn, we didn’t take a picture! Who is going to believe we saw a dolphin….

But what is that in the distance? More splashes! More dolphins! Quickening our paddle-stroke, we speed to the splash-site. All excited!!! There are three, no, four dolphins and they are playing. Surfacing, jumping, doing dolphin stuff. And we sneak closer and closer. The dolphins don’t seem to mind us drifting closer. A dolphin jumps right out of the water next to my boat, it almost gives me heart failure! By shock or excitement? I don’t know. Alexander is just as shocked.

        ‘Quick, quick, get the camera out! We must take photos or film. Otherwise, they are gone without us having a picture.’

Story of our life. We never have the camera ready in events such as this. First, you need to get over the excitement of the moment before rational thinking returns to make a picture of the exciting event. Here you can read more of those moments.

But luckily the dolphins stick around a bit longer and the camera can be used.

The dolphins are playing with each other, not really fishing. This water is too shallow for hunting. Perhaps they are communicating or bonding. They don’t mind us at all. They dive under the boats and surface between the boats. We can follow all their movements in the clear water with the sandy bottom. We spent about an hour watching them.

Hunger and cold bring us to the beach. We see some youngsters playing on the beach, yelling, screaming, and making a lot of fuss in the cold seawater. Alexander is still so excited about the dolphins he wants to share the experience with the youngsters. But they had only eyes for each other and not for splashing fish in the bay. 

After lunch, we went out in our kayaks to see if the dolphins were still around. But they were not. But we can watch them on film now! Reliving that special feeling of being together with 4 dolphins for one precious hour. I just hope the dolphins enjoyed our company too.

Charlotte Gannet