Life lessons from a Dolphin

Unbelievable but true. I played with a dolphin.  Not just swam beside, but actually engaged in play in the ocean with a wild dolphin.

Here's the story. Grab a coffee because it is a bit of a long one.

On day 6 (May 26th), we arrived at Conception Bay after driving all night from Hawksbill Cay.  Our luck finally turned and it was nothing but blue skies.  Until now we had two dives in and a few snorkels.  Not my usual dive trip.  And although we hadn't been diving, the lectures, the storm, blogging for SEA and chatting with everyone kept me more than happy and busy.  Our plan for the day was to play on the beach while they lowered the dive boats from the top deck, where they were stored for the 10 hour transfer, then go for two dives.

headed down the wall
photo: Christine Guinness

The first dive was a wall dive. I LOVE WALL DIVES (yes I'm shouting).  The wall started at 60 ft and my dive buddy Christine and I planned that she would go over the wall first then take video of me swan diving over the cliff to 100 feet.  I LOVE SWAN DIVES.  There is nothing greater than the feeling of soaring over the wall pointed toward the navy abyss. 

Side note: I need to expand my blue vocabulary because they have every shade here.

One of the really cool parts of this trip is having three photographers who record some of the most beautiful pictures of what we've seen.  You can read about all the details on the SEA blogs to come.  On the way up my head started to hurt. I've been fighting this cold for a month and in the excitement of the day I forgot to take my decongestants.  By the time I hit the surface my head hurt so much my eyes were crossed. It was everything I could do not to throw up. I had a reverse squeeze, where the bubbles get trapped and expand.  I crawled off the dive boat, downed some drugs and went to bed.  Eventually the bubbles dispersed and I was up and at it in time for the afternoon dive.  Kip asked if I was going to dive again and since I was feeling fine I said absolutely.  That's when the lesson started.  After rounds of discussions about pushing it and people they know going deaf because of pushing it, it became very obvious that I wasn't going diving.  I was beyond upset.  We had been topside for so long and with two days left I was benched.  Since I felt fine it seemed crazy not to be underwater so Kip worked hard at extolling the virtues of snorkeling. I was not convinced but in the spirit of the trip embraced one guest's philosophy of "wherever Sylvia goes, I go" so I donned one of Ann's dive skins (a cool tiger print number) and prepared to snorkel.


It turns out my ears weren't fine and my legs started cramping as well so it was a good thing I stayed up top.  Plus with the setting sun, all the colour was at the surface surrounding the huge stands of Elkhorn coral that reached from 35 feet to the surface. So the first part of the lesson learned: when you suffer from a dive incident, best to stay above water for a while.  In discussion with some of the more experienced people, they stated that often divers will push through pain and reasonable judgement because their underwater time is so precious and often rare.
The next morning I woke up and although I felt fine I decided we were too far away from help that if I got into trouble I would ruin everyone's day.  So on the last day of the trip I decided not to dive. I couldn't even say the words when asked if I was diving today. I just burst into tears giving a very clear indication what the answer was.  Once again, Kip tried to assure me that snorkeling would still be fun.  They were going back to the wall.  I just wanted to crawl back into bed and feel sorry for myself but since Sylvia would be on the boat, I would be on the boat.  So I pulled on Ann's tiger print skin again and pasted on a teary smile.  At least I would be in the boat with Sylvia and Kip.  After everyone dropped over the side and sank into big blue, I put on my gear and slipped over the side of the boat.  The plan was to follow the divers since it was easier to spot a tiger in the water than the bubbles of the divers.  As I prepared to follow, I turned to Sean, our captain, and said as a joke, "if you could conjure up a pod of dolphins, that would really make my day better." And off I swam to play in the diver's bubbles.  I was having fun watching Sylvia at work, taking pictures and moving around like she was born with gills.  At 77 years old, she is the picture of zen under water.  The divers started to surface and were hanging in the water for their safety stop.  After a couple free swims past the crew 20 feet down (I also borrowed Ann's free diver fins which are huge) I decided to head for the boat. My job as a spotter was done.  I pulled my head out of the water to yell to Sean that I was coming in when I saw him pointing and yelling at me.  It took a few seconds to register.  Dolphin! Go!

I put my face in the water and sure enough, a bottlenose dolphin was rocketing right for me.  These are incredibly shy mammals, despite what you might think after seeing them in Sea World.  I've been in the water twice with wild dolphins and every time they stay just on the periphery of your vision.  I wasn't expecting what happened next.  The dolphin did a wide turn, swam up beside me and stopped.  He looked me in the eye, just out of reach, inspected me and then started to circle.  Game on then little guy.  You want to play? I'll play. 

what a face!
Photo by: Dr. Sylvia Earle

We circled and rolled together, him always about 5 to 10 feet away.  My lungs and legs burned from the effort and I'd gasp for air at the surface and plunge back down again.  It only lasted a minute, maybe less, but Kip got is all on video.  Others soon joined me in the water and we had a game of chase going.  He would zoom in, play for a bit, then dive down to the sandy bottom, flip onto his back to wave his tale then zoom off to the other dive boat where Sylvia and a couple others had surfaced, about 300 feet away.  They had a similar game of chase going on.  It took my breath away in all possible ways.  To have such a beautiful animal play, inspect, say hello, was true magic.  Although I made my pledge to Sylvia about preserving our ocean resources, I also made my pledge to him.  Back on board the Sirenuse we were inspecting the photos and noticed deep cuts in his tail where he may have been caught in a net. It is a miracle he even survived. 

Damaged tail
Photo: Dr. Sylvia Earle

Sylvia, in her enchanted way of looking at things, is convinced that someone freed him and he came by to say thank-you. Maybe he did. Maybe he sensed I was having a bad day. Or maybe he just wanted some entertainment for a while.  Even though I couldn't communicate with him, he taught me that if you embrace the opportunity you have rather than dwell on what you missed, you put yourself in the game to have something truly life-changing happen.  On a simpler note, he also taught me there is always magic to be found in the ocean whether it is at 100 feet or on the surface.  As Sylvia says, "wet is wet".  So thank-you dolphin and thank you Sylvia. I will do everything I can to protect this blue heart of the planet.  Because it is now fully and completely a part of my heart.