The Best Dive Ever
I've been diving for a lot of years now, and even got my nitrox certification
a few years ago, but more recently I haven't been out for about a year and a
half. So when my friend Rob called up on Friday night to ask me to go diving
on his boat on Saturday, it didn't take me long to say yes. I'd been planning
on doing some car repair, but it was nothing I couldn't put off for another
week. That night I got all my gear out, made sure the battery in the dive
computer was still good, checked the BC for leaks, and loaded everything into
the the car.
The next morning I was at the boat ramp at 10:00 am sharp. Rob was there,
along with his boat-partners Jason and Lisa, who I have known for while. It
was my first time seeing their boat, though. The boat is a 21' Answer Marine
open fisherman center console. It's painted a nice flat gray. We loaded and
launched the boat, and headed south. Jason took the truck and
trailer to park it at a friend's house a couple miles south. The house is on
the water, so we picked him up there. We got there first, because on the
way Rob opened up the boat to its top speed. I could feel from the wind
speed that we were going fast, but I was still surprised when I looked at
the GPS and saw 55 mph. That 6-cylinder two-stroke was really moving us along.
We picked up Jason and headed out the inlet. Usually that inlet is pretty
tricky, as it has a broad sweep to the south, so as you finish coming out
you are running parallel to the beach. There are usually standing waves in
the inlet, but this morning it was calm. Once out of the inlet we began
running south to the first dive spot, when Lisa spotted a dolphin's dorsal
fin. Rob saw it too, so we turned around. As we ran north through nearly
flat seas Lisa and I dug out our mask, fins and snorkels. Soon we saw two
fins. The boat slowed, and I went over the side, but the dolphins didn't
stay. So I quickly got back on the boat and we headed north again. After
a few more minutes we saw the fins again, and Lisa and I went into the water.
In a few seconds I saw two dolphins directly in front of me, about fifteen
feet away. They were gray on top, with white spots on the underside. I
began swimming parallel to them, and they matched my speed. I looked behind
me, and Lisa was right there. The four of us swam together for a minute or so,
and then two more dolphins joined us. One was a juvenile, about five feet
long and gray all over, without the spots of the others. Lisa and I were
between the two pairs. Suddenly the four dolphins dived straight down, and
I followed. The dolphins swam in a spiral descending pattern around me,
watching me. I stayed with them until about 30 feet, and then turned to make
a slow ascent. I looked down as I floated up, and could see the dolphins level
off and swim away.
I surfaced next to Lisa, and we looked around for the boat. Then the dolphins
rejoined us! They alternated between swimming beside us, and circling around
us. When they circled us, we would turn to watch them, and they would match
the speed of our turn exactly. They seemed curious about who and what we
were. I dove down with them several more times.
It seemed like there were more dolphins, so I looked carefully, and counted
a total of eight. They were all bottlenose dolphins, but they all had
variations in size, thickness, and number of spots. We could hear them
communicating with high-pitched squeals. They must have been calling their
friends, because soon ther were 15 dolphins in the water with us. By this
point Rob was in the water, too. I had begun to recognize some of the first
dolphins we swam with, like the juvenile and what looked like an older
dolphin with lots of spots. These dolphins stayed back, and let the newcomers
have a good look at us. I dove down in the middle of the pod. It was quite
a sight, as I was surrounded by dolphins everywhere I looked. I spiralled
down to 40 feet this time, before I had to turn back. Rob, Lisa, and I
continued to swim beside the dolphins on the surface, and more dolphins
continued to appear.
Soon there were 22 dolphins, and three of us. I never felt threatened by
the dolphins, although I could see the teeth in their smiles. Their bottle-
shaped noses looked like effective weapons for ramming sharks or prey. The
dolphins were still examining us. When Rob switched to a dolphin kick, the
dolphin next to him seemed to mimic him, making exaggerated motions to show
what Rob looked like. One smaller dolphin took station right next to me,
and increased his (her?) speed. Soon I was swimming as fast as I could to
keep up. Suddenly the dolphin shot away in a flurry of bubbles. That was the
first time I had seen any cavitation; until then the dolphins had been
swimming smoothly and gracefully.
Once more the dolphins dived as a group, and once more I followed. We went
through 30, 40, 50 feet, watching each other. I had eye contact with one
dolphin as he watched this strange animal swimming next to him. Finally at
60 feet I had to stop. For the first time the pod continued straight down,
nearly out of sight to the bottom 90 or 100 feet below. The surface was a
long way up, but I was so relaxed I made a leisurely ascent.
On the surface the three of us tried to find words to say what a great
experience this was. As we floated, the dolphins reappeared, circled us once
more, and were gone.
Back on the boat, we wondered why the dolphins had spent so long (nearly 20
minutes) with us. It was probably curiousity, as they really seemed to be
examining us. In addition, we are all strong swimmers, so it probably helped
that we could keep up with the pod. My diving may have intrigued them, as
I thought they were testing me to see how deep I would go. The three of us
swam with only flutter or dolphin kicks, so we never had our arms flailing
or thrashing about. And we never attemted to reach out and touch the
dolphins. Throughout the experience the dolphins were the ones maintaining
the distance between us. Their body control was outstanding, as you might
expect from someone who swims for their entire life. Any dolphins who found
themselves next to each other would almost instantly fall into a rythym,
matching their movements exactly.
I got my basic scuba diver certifcation 25 years ago, and this is the first
time I have ever seen dolphins in the water. Without a doubt, this ranks as
the best dive ever.
Oh, and just to finish off the day, we did an 80' wreck dive, a 70' wreck
dive, snorkelled a 15' wreck not far from the beach, and then barbecued with
friends on the sandbar. And all on a warm, sunny, calm ocean day.
Dave Wilson
April 2005