Whatever it Takes Dolphin Run

I can’t promise this is the best dolphin in the wild picture ever but it might just be the most real. I did crop out the guys arm and zoom in on this momma and baby playing. It was the journey getting to this pixilated dream come true that is most amazing. I am afraid my camera skills are lacking to capture the true intensity of this sheer joy moment. Like any great story it has a beginning, the hook, beautiful blondes in the middle, and the ending (all be it a bit non climatic in this case). Most often I have found true peace of mind and soul to be this way as well. You think you are hunting for some pie in the sky high and there it is on any given regular Sunday morning worship service.

I don’t know how y’all worship. Apparently, I do it on an oversized pontoon out in the middle of the Gulf hunting for large marine mammals that like to swim and play all day. I have to remember why I orbit the sun with this planet sometimes. It just so happens dolphins are excellent reminders for me. About ten years ago, when I was wandering around in the deserts of Sedona, I dreamed of this day. I bought a reprint of Hoshin’s (aka Nicholas Kirsten) Dance of Liberation. Two dolphins nose to nose creating an infinity symbol under a bulls eye target looking circle that graces a washed out image of bluish background in the picture. Now what causes this plot to thicken is I have not been on a boat except a car ferry in Galveston for twenty years.

Twenty years ago, I was a watercraft operator in the US Army. I was on the ocean sailing everyday. Sometimes we would be more than hundred miles from shore for days on end. Then, I had an incident on an ocean bound 165 foot LCU. I was medically discharged and mentally affected to the point I moved to the desert for twenty years. So, this little dolphin watching and snorkeling trip was an experiment. I wanted to see if I was ready to get back to what I loved. They say to do what you played as a child for your vocation. Well, I sat in a laundry basket in the middle of the living room and pretended water was all around me and I had to stay in the boat, ie the basket. I would grab an imaginary steering wheel and ride the waves every now and then as I mostly watched the television before me.

Flash forward to this little Sunday excursion with Captain Lisa and First Mate Champagne slinging Ali. I wish I had gotten the video of her shaking up champagne and letting it explode over one of the ladies in the water. We had to go pick this lady up from another boat and we wanted to let her know we thought it was funny so she would not be embarrassed. She had swam to another Fury boat when she got confused. Who doesn’t love a precious sweet young blond woman that runs around making everybody’s mistakes a celebration? Anyway... that was the other part of the trip, snorkeling. This is the dolphin part. We were in the bottom of the ninth so to speak and no dolphins were to be found. We had already cruised their playground and looked closer inshore. Because of the clouds, rain, and choppy seas, Captain said they often went closer into shore in coves that were sheltered.

So Captain Lisa called out to her “buddies” on the water for a dolphin sighting hail Mary. I’m not sure what they said but she decided to blare Imagine Dragons “Whatever it Takes” and ride us full speed somewhere. She got so excited and nervous about this deal at some point she had to go to the head and Champagne Ali took over the wheel. When she got back she started calling in favors she was owed. Jack pot, we slowed down and people on the boat started seeing fins before we were even near the boat of local guys that were circling the dolphin swim area. Captain Lisa greeted the guys by name and began giving her spill about the dolphins. Ali passed out the laminated dolphin ID photos. She said they knew and named the dolphins by distinctive marks on their fins. Baby dolphins would not have any marks yet because they had not had the chance to get marred, maimed, or nicked living in the rough ocean seas.

The dolphins swam circling one another and went right under our boat at some point. They were super energetic diving down and coming up together in rounded arcs. They were putting on a show. They did not come high out of the water but they came right up to the surface. They were playing with one another seemingly somewhat oblivious of us. Then it seemed they got curious about some ladies on the bow of the boat and came up to the starboard side and then disappeared diving deep and not coming back up until they were in the middle of the circling boats. True performers and bearers of the most playful energy around. The Whatever It Takes Dolphin run.