Swimming with the Dolphins

It was on our third trip to St. Croix when I had what would be the most fantastic underwater experience of my life.  We had just gotten back to the Cottages by the Sea after doing two boat dives that morning.  The second dive had been to one of my favorite dive sites, "Armageddon". It is the area where they dumped the remains of the old Frederiksted Pier after Hurricane Hugo destroyed it in 1989.  It is similar to, but a little safer than, doing a wreck dive, although it does take some skill to maneuver through the wreckage. 


At one point I was doing a swim through down into an old piece of cement drain pipe approximately 8 feet long and lying at a 45 degree angle.  I could see that there was more rubble as I reached the end of the tube, and just as I was nearing the exit a large Green Moray Eel popped his rather scary looking face out from the twisted steel that lay in front of me.  Moray's constantly open and close their mouths to take in water in order to breathe, but at this close range, with nowhere for me to go, it looks to me like Mr. Moray is very hungry and he seems quite menacing.  I'm not the best swimmer when on the surface, but underwater I like to think I've become very capable and keep myself compact while slowly cruising through the water so as not to disturb the reefs and corals that we examine.  At this point though, not disturbing anything was the last thing I was concerned with.  I couldn't back pedal fast enough to get out of that tube!  When it comes to fight or flight, run like hell, or in this case it's swim like hell to get away from the perceived danger.  I must have looked like a gold fish out of his bowl trying to back up out of that narrow cylinder.  Obviously the moray could have cared less about me because he just drifted back into the wreckage. 


As a footnote, Green Moray's are actually brown but have a yellow tinted mucus that uniformly covers their body giving them that green look!


Upon returning to the Cottage, Sylvia, who has never liked to shop, decided on this day to go into town to pick up some souvenirs for the girls back home.  Between breathing through a regulator for a few hours and taking Dramamine to eliminate the seasickness that plagues me, I usually need a nap after morning dives, but I think the Moray experience left me a little invigorated, so I decided to take the kayak out onto the beautiful water that lies just steps from our cottages front porch.  I paddled around for a short time, but soon realized I'd rather be in the water than on it so I paddled back to shore and grabbed my snorkel gear.


Swimming in this pristine warm blue water is just an amazing experience.  The salt water keeps you more buoyant than fresh water making swimming almost effortless, the depth, even 100 yards off shore is only about 20 feet, and visibility is easily 100 feet or more so you can see everything around you.


I was about one hundred feet out from and swimming parallel to the shore, free diving to the bottom to pick up sand dollars laying on the bottom.  In between dives I just drifted along, catching my breath, slowly kicking and keeping my eyes on the bottom in search of more treasures.  Then, in my peripheral vision off to my right, about midway between myself and the shore, a huge grey flash goes streaking past me, and I'll admit, my first thought was SHARK!!! and I almost pooped my swim suit!! 


It only took a second to gather my senses and realize that the swim motion I had seen wasn't the side to side movement of a sharks body, but instead the up and down movement of a dolphin.  I stopped kicking and lifted my head out of the water and saw not one but two fins breaking through the water no more than twenty five feet in front of me, but swimming away from me.


I started swimming as fast as I could to catch up, while in the back of my mind I knew I could never swim as fast as a dolphin.  I picked my head up out of the water every few seconds to watch their progress, but they just kept on going, getting further ahead every time I glanced up.

They had now gotten about 100 feet in front of me and I was about to give up my pursuit when it happened.  One of the dolphins had turned around and was headed back in my direction!  I swam a little further and there she was, stopped right in front of me.  For the second time I almost pooped in my swim suit.

I picked my head out of the water to see if the second dolphin had stopped too, but didn't see it.  I was still in sight of the Cottage so I also looked to see if perhaps Sylvia had returned from her shopping trip because I knew this was a sight she would love to see.  There were others on the shore watching what was happening, but unfortunately, no Sylvia.

I returned my gaze to the dolphin right in front of me,  I swear I could have reached out and touched her, but I know that this is a wild creature, not like the dolphins in captivity who are used to contact with humans, so instead I just kept a steady gaze on this wonderous animal that was gracing me with her presence.

She was actually vertical in the water, with her nose snooping around a large coral head rooted on the bottom.  Knowing that the depth here is about 15 feet, and judging by the distance between her  tailfin and the surface of the water I guess her to be at least 10 feet in length, and she seems oblivious to my presence, concentrating instead on the coral head she is probing with her nose.

My heart is racing and I'm gasping for breath through my snorkel I am so excited.  I lift my head out of the water again in hopes of seeing Sylvia, but again, no luck.  When I once again return my face to the water, the dolphin is still at it, and it actually seems like she is getting angry.  She is still verticle in the water and constantly circling the coral head, butting at it with her nose.

Then, as if this vision in front of me is not fantastic enough,  I see the second dolphin returning from the distance!  He swims right up to the larger dolphin and actually stops, watching what she is doing.  My guess is that it is the baby of the first dolphin in that it is only half her size.  They are now both right in front of me at not much more than arms length away.  She is still furiously prodding the coral head when the smaller dolphin notices me beside his mother.

Up until this point, they had both been directly in front of me but upon seeing me he swims around her and swims in a circle around me.  I follow his motions, watching him the whole time.  He turns his little white belly towards me and I can see his eyes.  We actually make eye contact, staring directly into one anothers eyes, he is looking right into my eyes!  I am so moved I actually begin to cry, I can't believe how incredible this experience feels.

He swims back over near mom, and she is now in a rage.  I cannot understand what is so intriguing about this coral head that she would be banging her head against it so furiously.  She head butts it so hard that she actually breaks it loose from the bottom of the sea, and then I see what she has been concentrating so hard on.  A flounder scoots out from under the coral head, swims about 4 feet away, and tries to hide itself flat on the sea floor.  Mama dolphin is not to be denied though, she has seen it and rushes in its direction.  The flounder flashes up from the bottom but just as quickly Mama dolphin snatches him out of the water and with just a few chomps the flounder is gone.  I am thankful that I didn't try to pet her when she was preoccupied at the coral head because during those couple of chomps while she was eating the flounder I could see a very full set of what looked like very sharp teeth in her mouth. 

As soon is momma is done with her lunch, without giving me a second thought, she swims off in the direction they had been heading in the first place.  If I were to embellish this tale, even just a little, I would say that the smaller dolphin turned to look at me again, and waved goodbye with his small pectoral fins before swimming along with mama, but honestly, from my point of view, this story needs no embellishment whatsoever.  Other than the birth of my two children, nothing that has ever happened to me has moved me as much, actually bringing me to tears.

I swam back to the the cottage and actually paced back and forth from the front porch to the parking lot, waiting for Sylvia to get back.  The excitement just enveloped me.  She returned just a few minutes later and before I could even say anything she asked what was wrong!!  She could see how wound up I was.  I actually said to her, please don't be upset, because I know she has always wanted to have an experience such as this.

She was thrilled for me, but at the same time, mad at herself for picking this day to do one of her least favorite things.  I hope her girls enjoyed the souvenirs!