Update Cayman Islands
I did some emailing to local marine environmental groups and learned "Studly" our frisky dolphin friend, is well-known in the area as "Stinky." He is a lone dolphin, which is unusual, who has interacted with boaters and divers for over 3 years. Lara, a dolphin trainer at Dolphin Cove, wrote me that his behavior (maturbating on our anchor chain) is not uncommon for adolescent or mature male dolphins. Her team watched the videos we posted and told Ben and Rachel, who dinghied to Dolphin Cove on an general explore, that dolphin vocalizations and jaw-snapping are aggressive behavior. So, we were perhaps lucky, and surely dumb, to swim with him, mistakenly thinking he was encouraging and enjoying our company. Perhaps he was feeling possessive about Act III's goddess bow and wanted her all to himself. It was still a thrilling interaction.
Backing up in time: our first stop after leaving Key West was Dry Tortugas National Park, about 70 miles west of KW. There are no services there, just a small quiet anchorage surrounded by a spectacularly beautiful bird sanctuary that made us feel like we were in The Birds movie, and an uncompleted fort. When the US bought Florida from Spain, they thought Dry Tortugas--so named because there is no fresh water source-- would be a perfect location for a fort to control the lucrative shipping (pillaging) between Mexico and Central America and Europe. They started but never finished a huge fort, after laying over 16 million bricks. We enjoyed spectacular snorkeling and Ben fished, of course,
Too bad Ben wasn't wearing his Go-Pro camera when he made a Highlight-reel cast one evening from the inflatable. He caught a smallish snapper and while reeling it in, a large barracuda spun up and clamped the side of the the snapper in its jaws. Now Ben reeled carefully, hoping to salvage both his lure and the two fish. He got his catch up to the dinghy, just about to lean over and get his lure back, when from under the dinghy shot a hammer-head shark who gulped both the fish in a flash. Jeesh!
We could only stay one night before weather pushed us on to Isla Mujeres, Mexico, off the coast of Cancun. We had to motor much of the way around the west coast of Cuba, but at least conditions were calm. Isla Mujeres is a great mix of Mexico and Caribbean Islands, friendly and charming, after jumping through the typical Mexican hoops to check in. We were scolded for not having fumigation papers, and they could have forced us to get Mexcan fumigation with muy harsh chemicals, but we were pardoned with much warning. We stayed at Puerto Isla Mujeres, a posh resort/marina but quite inexpensive, and treated ourselves to some pool and swim up bar, laundry and divine outdoor massages (Rachel and Heidi only; the men claim massages hurt).
We left Mexico after 5 days, but heading due south was out of the question. We made some good easting, however, and when weather for SW Caribbean was reported "truly horrendous" we stopped here at Cayman Islands to wait things out. Ben took this time to return to Montana to complete a boat engine install he had started last fall, and our sailing weather wasn't due to get much better for a week, so Bill, Heidi and Rachel toughed it out alone in the clear warm water, off the shore of Rum Point Club, which puts out a decent wifi signal.
Ben returned 5 days ago, and we checked out to leave on Friday, but then heard an updated weather that would have us in 25-30 kt winds on the nose for 2-3 days. Act III could do it, but in the interest of saving the crew, we waited two more days. We just checked out again, and we hope our next post is from Bocas del Toro, Panama. Wish us luck this time...we're getting nervous about hurricanes.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Cayman Islands, 0600 hours, June 13:
Bill, Heidi and Rachel aboard; Ben had to fly to Montana for a week to finish a boat engine install. I'll catch up with other news later, but this astounding event requires immediate posting:
A dolphin has been playing with Act III for over 13 hours now. We are anchored and when Rachel, working in the hammock on the bow, first saw him, he was slowly moving up and down our anchor chain to the bottom where it maybe stirred up food; he slinked up and down the chain, back and forth to the surface, misting us with his exhales as he reached the surface. How do we know it's a "He", you ask? We know for sure because after a half-hour of anchor-sliding, he hovered near the surface beside the chain, sidled over, rolled belly-up under the chain, and began to rub his large, extended bright-pink penis across the chain. Over and over again he repeated this series of moves, pausing after each session to take frequent breaths (and have a smoke?) At one point, he hooked his penis on the chain and pulled the bow of Act III about 4 feet to starboard. Don't even think about trying this at home, guys!
This went on for over an hour, then when Studly (our name for him) ) had enough self-satisfaction he began to splash, frolic, and race toward us, making high-pitched noises and dolphin clicks, then turning on his side to stare at our reaction. We got in the dinghy (no motor so we wouldn't hurt him with the propeller) and floated up to the bow. Studly was thrilled and surfaced over and over to us, allowing Rachel several pets on his head. Careful pets, because he was making those big jaw-snapping clicks that we do not think are aggressive, but induce caution, nonetheless. Next he began diving under the dinghy and bumping us heavily. We came back aboard when it got too dark to see much anymore (and we had some fresh Cayman Rum cake to test), and we heard Studly continue to blow around the bow; I came out to check on him when it got quiet and he breeched with a huge splash. We figured he'd get bored soon enough. or at least go sleep or eat but....
He squeaked, bumped and slapped Act III at the bow all night, so vigorously that poor Rachel barely got any sleep in the V-berth. Before Studly's appearance, we had thought to mosey around North Sound, Grand Cayman today to a new anchor spot, but we cannot bring ourselves to leave him. So we're pinned here until the dolphin lets us go. Rachel just went out in the dinghy again and Studly's so excited he spun bubbles around her, then leaped out of the water.
...At 0800 we donned masks and snorkels and went swimming with Studly, who mugged, jaw-snapped, clicked and squeaked for the camera. We got out of the water about 30 minutes later; and our new friend, pleased with himself for calling us into the water, and clearly unimpressed with our aquatic skills, made a few more lazy circles around Act III and departed, after 15 hours.
It's the most amazing thing in nature we've ever experienced.
Check the Videos (and poke around my YouTube channel to watch some great music performed by Polly Lorien)
Bill, Heidi and Rachel aboard; Ben had to fly to Montana for a week to finish a boat engine install. I'll catch up with other news later, but this astounding event requires immediate posting:
A dolphin has been playing with Act III for over 13 hours now. We are anchored and when Rachel, working in the hammock on the bow, first saw him, he was slowly moving up and down our anchor chain to the bottom where it maybe stirred up food; he slinked up and down the chain, back and forth to the surface, misting us with his exhales as he reached the surface. How do we know it's a "He", you ask? We know for sure because after a half-hour of anchor-sliding, he hovered near the surface beside the chain, sidled over, rolled belly-up under the chain, and began to rub his large, extended bright-pink penis across the chain. Over and over again he repeated this series of moves, pausing after each session to take frequent breaths (and have a smoke?) At one point, he hooked his penis on the chain and pulled the bow of Act III about 4 feet to starboard. Don't even think about trying this at home, guys!
This went on for over an hour, then when Studly (our name for him) ) had enough self-satisfaction he began to splash, frolic, and race toward us, making high-pitched noises and dolphin clicks, then turning on his side to stare at our reaction. We got in the dinghy (no motor so we wouldn't hurt him with the propeller) and floated up to the bow. Studly was thrilled and surfaced over and over to us, allowing Rachel several pets on his head. Careful pets, because he was making those big jaw-snapping clicks that we do not think are aggressive, but induce caution, nonetheless. Next he began diving under the dinghy and bumping us heavily. We came back aboard when it got too dark to see much anymore (and we had some fresh Cayman Rum cake to test), and we heard Studly continue to blow around the bow; I came out to check on him when it got quiet and he breeched with a huge splash. We figured he'd get bored soon enough. or at least go sleep or eat but....
He squeaked, bumped and slapped Act III at the bow all night, so vigorously that poor Rachel barely got any sleep in the V-berth. Before Studly's appearance, we had thought to mosey around North Sound, Grand Cayman today to a new anchor spot, but we cannot bring ourselves to leave him. So we're pinned here until the dolphin lets us go. Rachel just went out in the dinghy again and Studly's so excited he spun bubbles around her, then leaped out of the water.
...At 0800 we donned masks and snorkels and went swimming with Studly, who mugged, jaw-snapped, clicked and squeaked for the camera. We got out of the water about 30 minutes later; and our new friend, pleased with himself for calling us into the water, and clearly unimpressed with our aquatic skills, made a few more lazy circles around Act III and departed, after 15 hours.
It's the most amazing thing in nature we've ever experienced.
Check the Videos (and poke around my YouTube channel to watch some great music performed by Polly Lorien)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)