Location: Azores
The day didn’t seem like much when it started. I woke up to my blaring alarm, something that had been nearly unused for the whole voyage. I looked up through the Fo’c’sle hatch and was disappointed to find a gloomy and cloudy grey sky above me. Today was supposed to be our beach day, and nobody wants a cloudy day on the beach. Little did I know what the day had in store for us.
The first indication of how happy today would be was walking into the salon to a bunch of balloons and a happy birthday banner in Portuguese for our crewmate Mal. Today was her 20th birthday, and we were all so stoked to be able to celebrate with her. When she woke up and finally walked into the salon, we all sang happy birthday and presented her with a few gifts. It was quite a jolly way to start the morning and just the first surprise of the day.
Following a wonderful breakfast made by our chefs of the day (who, to our gratitude, were up until nearly midnight making muffins and woke up at 6 am to start on the bacon and berry compote), we had our second surprise of the day. Trusty Captain Tom informed us that we would no longer be going to the natural pools to go swimming, but that we would instead be going swimming with dolphins through one of the local dive shops! This understandably sparked lots of excited chatter and ruckus, as pretty much all of us were about to check off something fairly high on each of our bucket lists. Cleanup ensued, one of our fastest to date, and people hurriedly got ready. Despite the still gloomy and now slightly misting weather, spirits were high, smiles abounded, and laughs and squeals could be heard all over the ship.
Once ready, we made the quick walk across the harbor to the dive shops, waving to our friends from the scuba experience a few days prior, excitedly telling them about our next marine adventure. As we waited, we were kept entertained by the dive shop’s unofficial mascot, Noa, a beautiful dog who got lots of attention from our crew. Once everything was loaded up and wetsuits adorned, we departed in two separate boats and set out to find some dolphins. Despite the earlier excitement, there seemed to be nervous energy among our group. The weather wasn’t really improving; it was still grey and misty, even more so on the open water, and combined with the apparent wind created by zooming speedboats, it was now quite chilly too. There was no guarantee that we would even find dolphins and get close enough to be able to swim with them, and I think we all realized that.
After motoring out of the harbor and past some of the other islands of the Azores, we slowed down and started circling around, keeping our eyes peeled. We had been looking for only about 5 minutes but were already starting to get a bit impatient when the radio of our ship crackled out a message. The other group is, some significant distance away but still in sight, had spotted the dolphins. We all turned our heads and looked over at their boat, seeing a few splashes around, and only a few left on the boat. We zoomed over, seeing more and more dolphins jumping out of the water, some majestically and some in a manner that can only be described as flopping. These were common dolphins, with dark grey backs and a whiter bottom, looking sort of like miniature orcas with less ornate color patterns, and there seemed to be countless of them. In reality, there were probably at least 70 or 80, but they appeared in whatever direction you chose to look, as we had positioned ourselves in the middle of their massive pod. We hurriedly zipped our wetsuits up (the water was only a brisk 23 degrees centigrade), got our masks and snorkels on, and slid down into the water. There were dolphins everywhere when you were on the surface, but as soon as you hopped in, they seemed to disappear. Keep in mind these are wild animals, and we were chasing them in a boat with a fairly loud motor. Once the dolphins were out of sight, we clambered back onto the boat, no easy task without the use of fins (which scared the dolphins). Once aboard, we motored on forward and got ahead of the pod this time so they would be coming our way. We hopped back into the water, much quieter this time so as not to scare them away, and waited. In a few seconds, you could hear whistles from below and around you, slowly growing louder. Soon the dolphins came into view, swimming far below us but still in view, quite an amazing sight. After a few more climbs back into the boat, motoring ahead and sliding back in, quieter each time as we got the hang of it, we saw enough of the common dolphins and motored a bit further out: a few boats had spotted a large pod of bottle-nosed dolphins. It was only 10:30, and we had already swum among one pod of dolphins and were heading for a second.
On the way, a funny encounter happened as we passed a shark diving vessel. Our boat’s captain shouted out to the other boat’s captain, asking how long they’d been there. He indicated three hours, and from the looks of some of the passengers on board, it sure seemed so. Our captain informed them that they were too shallow to see sharks and to go to a spot further out. Watching the faces of the paying customers was quite comical as their so-called “expert” was getting advice from the dolphin and whale guys. It was a funny moment for us, but I’m sure the passengers weren’t too pleased.
It was only a few minutes after that that we spotted yet another massive pod of dolphins and pulled up near our other dive boat. These were the bottle-nosed dolphins, much, much larger, up to four meters in length, with all the weight to go along with it. They had a solid light grey color to them all around and seemed to glide through the water with such power. Just watching them swim around us and zip under the bow of the boat was incredible. We were instructed by our guide and captain that these animals were much more skittish, and we would only dive in smaller groups. Half of our boat slid in, and while we waited and kept an eye out for the dangerous Portuguese Man-of-War jellyfish native to this area, we listened to the squeals and screams of our friends in the water as the dolphins came right near them. Soon they climbed as we pulled them back into the boat (it’s truly a team effort), and we motored on ahead. It was time for group two to dive in, and we did so excitedly. However, we only caught a glimpse of them as they swam around our bow and out of sight. We hurriedly climbed in and motored ahead again, but once again, they swam away just as we got in the water, and you could just barely make out their silhouettes as they dove down, leaving only a trail of slowly rising bubbles. As we got out for the third time, our guide seemed ready to turn back but asked to make sure that everyone had seen the bottle-nosed in the water. And thank god that Duncan hadn’t. Our captain seemed determined to make sure everyone got to see them and promised us one more shot at them.
We motored a bit further and positioned ourselves in front of them, giving us more time to get in the water without scaring them off again. We let Duncan dive in first; at this point, most of us followed suit instead of the smaller groups. We waited for a minute or two before the faint sounds of clicks and whirs could be heard. These dolphins seemed to have a much louder language with a lot more variation between clicks, squeaks, whirs, and whistles, while the common dolphins seemed to rely mostly on whistles. As the sounds got closer, we all looked anxiously around, trying to see what direction they were coming from. Turns out it was right in front of us. As the dolphins emerged out of the blue, they swam much closer this time. It seemed they had maybe gotten comfortable enough and realized we had no intention of hurting them and that they wanted to check us out. And check us out. They did. A group of 10 swam near to max, who had dove down a bit deeper and seemed to surprise the dolphins at that depth, used to us being at the surface. Some three or four circled Haley and me, maintaining eye contact as they swam face to face with us, some ten or so feet away, and then circled around below us. One even gave Mal a little birthday kiss, diving right beneath her, maybe an arm’s length or two, and blowing a stream of bubbles right up into her. Duncan finally got to see the dolphins up close as they swam near us for a few minutes; by far, the best dive of the day!
It truly was such a unique experience to have to stare at another intelligent creature and acknowledge each other. I was fascinated by them, and it seemed they were at least curious enough about us to give a swim-by. Once they had checked us out, they allowed us to swim near them, staying as close to them as our not designed for the sea bodies would allow. But they seemed to slow up for us during the last dive, and it was an incredible moment for me. It was so peaceful and inspiring, as it seemed that we both recognized each other and were ok just being in each other’s presence, a moment that I don’t think I will ever forget.
Following this dive, we headed back to land, noting the shark diving boat was no longer there, and racing our friends in the other boat (our boat won, but apparently, their boat did donuts and took a slight detour to motor through a flock of seabirds, so I don’t know who really won). It was only noon by the time we got back to the boat, the sun was finally starting to fight its way through the clouds, and we had already had a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And to top it all off, Carolyn and Tom were finishing cooking up some chicken fried rice for lunch which hit the spot.
Following lunch and clean-up, we reapplied sunscreen (yes, Mom, I’ve been wearing sunscreen every day) and set out for the beach. Following a short 10-minute walk, we arrived at the path through the dunes to the soft, volcanic, black-sanded beach. Despite being on a boat and on the ocean or near an island for the majority of this trip, this was our first beach day, and I could be happier (well, other than swimming with dolphins). My family knows how much I love the beach, but also how much I love the sand, and it was such a great feeling to feel the sand beneath my toes. Zac Brown said it best when he sang, “I got my toes in the water, butt in the sand, not a worry in the world […] life is good today.” Life sure was good today. As we claimed our spot on the beach, we spread into our preferred activities. A few of us were really looking forward to a nap in the sand and got right to it, while a few others walked to the cafe at the other end of the beach for some coffee and some free wifi to call family and friends. Me? Well, of course, my family already knows this, but I got right into beach sports.
We started off with some soccer keep-up, which then turned into a 3-on-3 evenly contested soccer match. Once our beachy “pitch” was sufficiently chewed up, Calum suggested we play some touch rugby. All of us were game, but being American, the closest thing we knew was football. Calum gave us a quick lesson, and we started to play. Despite much confusion and misunderstandings of the rules, we seemed to get the hang of it and had a ton of fun. However, the sand was black, and we were all diving around in it. We were soon covered and decided to call it quits in favor of taking a dip in the refreshingly cold ocean to both clean off and cool down. Someone brought the ball in to wash it off, and we soon fell into playing the childhood camp game known as TAPS. It wasn’t the cleanest game I’ve been a part of, but it sure as hell was the most fun; we splashed around laughing the whole time. Once we were “tapped out” (sorry, not sorry), we got out and let the warmer air dry us off. For the rest of our time, some joined the others at the cafe, and some decided to join the nap crew. Either way, it was a successful beach day and just the relaxing afternoon that we all needed.
We returned to the boat, sufficiently relaxed and extremely sandy, to yet another surprise: laundry was back! Finally, we could stop wearing the one outfit we had left and had been pretty much stuck in for the past three days and could opt for a nice fresh smelling clean shirt and shorts. We gladly changed and had a wonderful dinner of our chefs’ take on cheeseburgers in paradise. We had our squeeze for the evening, and you could clearly see the appreciation and happiness as each one of us reflected on our days. It was clear that this had been a special day for each one of us, definitely one of the better ones on our voyage. But we were rewarded with one last surprise. In honor of Mal and the great day that we have all had, we would have a movie night, complete with brownies and ice cream! Ice cream for you at home might seem like a fun but fairly common treat. For us on the boat, anything cold is a hot commodity, let alone a dessert treat like ice cream.
Well, it seems like the oceanography class that the 70 days are in is wrapping up now, so it looks like movie time is coming up! I wouldn’t want to miss a sweet end to a sweet day.
Signing off for now, with lots of love to my family and friends, and lots of appreciation, happiness, and gratitude for the packed day that we had,
-Brian C.