Location: Sandy Spit, BVI
What is a Seamester moment? A Seamester moment is one of those unexpected moments during the trip when you find yourself stopped dead in your tracks. You look around and are just in awe of how awesome your life is at that particular moment. It happens at different times for everyone aboard, but with each trip, there is guaranteed to be a few for each crew member. For myself, I’ve had many over the years, countless memories collected from 4 years of sailing around the world with Seamester, each one as unique and special as the other. Well, today, I added a new TOP Seamester moment, one that still has me in awe. Today, much of the crew and I got to swim with dolphins! I’m not talking about some contrived tourist attractions where they keep dolphins caged up just so people can pay big bucks to “swim” with them. I’m talking about wild dolphins in the open ocean that allowed us to swim along with them. This never happens. Next to the boat all the time, but if anyone gets in the water, they never hang around for long. But not today. Today, a pod of 5, one male, two females, and two calves, swam up to the boat with one of our crew in the water. Everyone hesitated to assume the norm that they would soon swim away, but when they didn’t and just kept getting closer, the crew started scrambling for masks and dive fins. At first, they turned away from the larger group, and I swam off the stern in the hope of cutting them off. When it seemed unlikely for me to see any, I went a bit further out, and then there they were, a mother and calf that came right up to check me out. They kept their distance at first, but then I dove down with them, and they started to follow along with me, getting more curious.
By now, the rest of the crew and pod joined in, and for a while, all of us were swimming around, mutually fascinated with each other. It was simply the most amazing, unbelievable, epic Seamester moment. I don’t know how else to describe it, but I swam alongside the pod, at times close enough to reach out and touch them, diving and breaching with them, just having the time of my life. Eventually, they had their fill and went on their way, and the crew swam back to the boat. Everyone was elated with the experience and still is. The rest of the day was awesome as well, with some diving, beach time, and a lot of studying in prep for exams coming up. But I, for one, am still thinking about this amazing, unforgettable experience. Sometimes you just have to love your life.