Dolphins!

I was good.  I went to the gym yesterday morning. 

On the way back, I stopped to watch the end of a lecture on Brazil.  Before I settled in, there was an announcement from the bridge that a pod of dolphins had been spotted and was heading our way.  Other than for mealtimes, I haven’t seen a room empty as quickly around here.

Insert your own cliché here, but to me it seemed like an on-rushing cavalry charge.  It really felt like we were under attack.  First, some came from one direction, and as the ship turned, they came from another direction.  All told, there must have been between 50 and 100.  It was manic.  It was gleeful.  It was completely infectious.  While I’m certainly anthropomorphizing, the dolphins seemed ecstatic to find us.  There were mothers with young who moved in perfect synchronicity.  And then there were the bow riders.  An interchangeable group of about 8-12 took up positions in front of the ship as our advance guard, guiding us to wherever we wanted them to.  After about 45 minutes and thousands of pictures taken, our pod moved on to their next adventure.

Today, I wasn’t good.  I didn’t go to the gym.

I did go to a demonstration of navigation.  Again in the middle of it, an announcement came from the bridge of another dolphin sighting.  This one didn’t look quite as large, and some felt that dolphins were so yesterday, that they weren’t sure if they needed to go through that drill again.  So, the room didn’t empty quite as fast.

Regardless, many people headed out to lean over the bow and watch.  What started as a minor sighting rapidly turned into a full-on melee.  This was more than just a frolic but became a feeding frenzy.  Again, feel free to think up your own cliché here, but the ocean really was boiling.  And it wasn’t just dolphins.  Melon head whales, plus spinner dolphins were in the mob.  Groups were moving every which way chasing whatever they were chasing.  They were all around the ship.  I’m sure the numbers were in the hundreds.  We would see groups 8 or 10 melon head whales moving in unison, probably herding their prey. 

While no one knew exactly what the prey was, many of my friends the flying fish were flying out from amid the chaos.  I don’t know if they were the main targets or just innocent bystanders.  At least the boobies weren’t still around.