Bittersweet

Today I had one of the most exciting marine encounters since arriving in the Turks and Caicos. A few of us were heading out for a dive in a routine fashion when one of the staffers spotted, out of the corner of his eye, something jumping. He wasn't sure what it was, so we didn't think much of it until a few seconds later when somebody shouted, "DOLPHINS!"


With almost no hesitation one of the interns grabbed his mask and camera and dove overboard. I was completely unprepared and scrambled to get my dive boots, fins, and mask on. I grabbed my camera and dove in moments later. It was absolutely amazing!!! They were so playful and curious. I was still completely out-of-sorts in the water though. My wetsuit was only halfway on (so it created enormous drag) and I had left my snorkel behind (so I couldn't breathe properly). But I still managed get a good look.

I guess it shouldn't be a surprise since they're mammals, but I was amused when I noticed (from this picture) that dolphins have belly buttons.

They swam all around us, spinning and playing. They would approach cautiously and then dart away quickly when you looked towards them. The whole time you could hear them clicking and squeaking. I couldn't keep track of exactly how many there were, but one of the interns counted 13. There were at least two little ones too. Dolphins are pretty rare visitors to this area (it's been about a year since the last sighting), so we were really lucky to see them. The whole thing only lasted about 5 or 10 minutes - the drag my wetsuit caused kept me from following too far.


Purely elated, we went for our dive. What came next, however, really put a damper on the day. There were no problems on the dive itself, but we were horrified by what we found when we returned to the mooring. Actually, we were horrified by what we did not find. The boat had torn free and was gone!! In the wrong circumstances that can be an extremely bad thing.

The mooring line dangling beneath the surface after the buoy and boat had torn free.

We ascended to our safety stop (a depth of 15ft) and continued swimming in the direction of the waves and wind, hoping we'd find it close by. The waves had gained considerable strength, however, and the boat could have been drifting for as long as 35 or 40 minutes. It was headed for Long Cay too, which meant it would be badly damaged against the rocks. Eventually we surfaced to see that it was. We still had a several 100 meter swim too (exercise isn't the best thing to do after a deep dive either).


When we got closer we realized there was no hope for getting out of there on our own. The waves had placed it almost completely out of the water on the rocky shore. One of the interns swam ahead, climbed onto the shore, and retrieved a cell phone from the boat. She called for help while we stayed in the water just off shore (the waves made it rather hazardous to get out). We floated there for more than a half an hour waiting for the rescue boat to arrive and we were running out of daylight.

Signal float extended and waiting to be rescued. That's one of us on land above calling for help.

It arrived, finally, and we shuttled our equipment back to the Center. A few of us stayed there to clean up our gear, but the others headed back out in an attempt to salvage what was left of the damaged boat. Even if they could pull it off the rocks, there was no assurance it would float. They eventually got it back (in the dark), but from what they told me, it nearly got much worse. First the tow rope got tangled in the rescue boat engine and caused it to cut out. The waves nearly took that one into the rocks too before our third boat (which arrived on the scene just minutes earlier) came to rescue the rescuers. They too had a close call with the tow rope and then nearly didn't have enough power to pull all the weight to safety. We could have lost all three of our remaining boats in one shot!

The damage to the one boat is serious and it likely won't be back in commission for quite some time. Fortunately, the center director seems to understand that we weren't acting irresponsibly and that the problem was caused by poor quality moorings that break loose way too easily (6 out of 10 are currently broken). It was an intense afternoon, but we're all safe and we have quite a story to show for it.

(p.s. I have video of the dolphins, but it will take a while to upload, so keep a look out for it soon).