Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Week Two Dolphins and Sharks at Bimini




July 17. Left Miami and crossed stream into strong easterly winds on our nose. Made only four knots. Arrived Bimini 11am. I did some free diving to get my breath back. Divers enjoyed a 25 foot reef with loads of fish.

Afternoon we ran in dolphin grounds and had a ten minute close contact with seven spotters. Strong winds continue to make it a tough job to put people into the water and extract them.

July 18. Despite strong easterlies we had good dives Limited dolphin contact. Overnight at Gun Cay. Juliet is rock solid. Fellow travelers are wonderful grup, enjoying everything.

July 19. Morning dive at Stevie’s Wonder. Lots of fish but viz down to max of fifty feet. 4 – 5 foot swells made diver recovery an adventure. Sailed north in the pm. Found dolphins flying off the wave tops. Juvenile with flaming pink belly porpoise leaping beside us time after time. Ended the day at Bimini Road. No extraterrestrial contacts.

July 20. Weather too rough to look for dolphins. Nice dive in clear water in the morning then into Bimini to overnight. What a shame the Complete Angler burned down some years ago.

July 21. Weather still very rough. But again nice diving at Bull Run and other locations. Coral still vivid and alive. Plenty of small fish. Mellow sharks at Bull Run. Everyone enjoyed being with them and some cured their life long fear of sharks.

July 22. Still rough. Great diving. Had to run for Miami to arrive ahead of tropical storm Bonnie.

July 23. Debarked the Juliet and drove home to Saint Augustine through driving rain much of the time.

In a future blog I will write of the dangers of putting divers into rough water in the open sea.

1 comment:

Mustikos said...

I was watching "THE COVE" on planetgreen.. at this point, I'm seriously considering dedicating the rest of my life to go against such wrongdoings... the slaughter of dolphins in Taihi resumes each September, apparently, but is there some way people could go out and drop audio beacons to keep the dolphins away? Like lobster pots... I don't understand how they could be corralled into this cove is such a way.. ugh.. I'm going to focus on this issue as I rest for the evening .. but I hope everyone realized they need to make more of a sacrifice than just donating some money; sacrifices such as changing they way the live ... get rid of ur damn car and stop buying so much crap!