Swimming with the pod

Some nice sequences from today´s session

Brand new baby dolphin born

10:45 a.m.

Wind and waves. Leo and I are roaming around the wall of the pier to hunt for crab when I spot the first fin. "Come Leo, let's go together!" I yell, and we start to run to the kayak. With his broken arm still in a casket his movement is still limited and we have to be careful that he doesn't fall off the boat. 

Off we row and then we meet the pod. It's yesterday's group. At least twenty coming down from the north. 

We cut through the waves and the mist soaks Leo who sits in the front. It is like wild water kayaking today. 

While we row next and above the pod the dolphins look at us. We see eye to eye each time they come up to breathe. Normally when they take air only the air hole and the top of the head emerges out of the water. 

Then we spot him: there is a brand new baby dolphin in the pod. He is dark colored and about a meter long. He stays very close to his mother which is surrounded by the rest of the pod. Both swim at the front and the others follow. It seems to be a special day for the group. The baby comes up to breathe every other minute or so. 

Welcome to the world !

After a kilometer we leave our friends and slowly row back through the waves. 

11:45 a.m. we are back on the beach. 

Dolphin expelling used oxygene

Charlotte 

3:30 p.m.

While I'm back in our apart to set up a blog for my wife Nicole calls from the beach. I start jogging to the beach. On the way out I meet Vali and Cha. Now we are all running. We are fast enough and meet up with this group right infront of our beach. 

They are very playful, jumping, swimming belly up. 

Charlotte goes in first. All communication channels are open and the water is full of whistling and beeping. There is a couple of young ones that are very playful. 

There is the dolphin that plays with his plastic bag, and there is the one with half of his tail fin missing. I recognize also some other big adults. There is one young dolphin in this group. Altogether they number maybe 10 dolphins. 

We follow the group down south. 

The playful youth

The wind has stopped and the water is flat, the kayak glides well. 

At one point I follow a big adult, we look at each other, swim at 90°, then circles, then we dive. Then he speeds off. 

Cuddly dolphin - shot by Charlotte

Mother and her calf - by Charlotte

Dolphin with a bad scar - by Charlotte

Playful youth again

After awhile the dolphins position themselves in a hunting formation. We leave them and start our way back up the coast. 

20 dolphins dip

Inside

15h30
Dolphin alert !
Since Valentina does not join into these missions anymore due her shark phobia. Charlotte comes along.
The weather is hot, the sea is flat. We see them coming from a good distance and meet up with them pretty far up the norther stretch of our beach. The dolphins are moving south. There are at least twenty of them.

Charlotte among the pod

Chacha goes in first. The pod had stopped for her and now gets moving. She is in play mood and makes sounds and swims in circles and the big pod responds. The whole group encircles her. They turn and swim back to her, take her in and then, after a while, swim on.
Now it's my turn. This is the same pod as last week. I recognize the dolphin with half a tail fin, the crazy youth and some other adults. My mask is loose and fills with water all the time.

Among the group

Male dolphin swimming belly up

Curiosity

Deep down

Curious dolphin saying hi

Chacha goes in again. Today they are clearly closer to her. They all swim around her and watch her play with one of their group.
Now we have two pedal boats and two snorkelers coming. They are amazed. The dolphins don't stop for the snorkelers.

The young crazy one

Look at this eye ! Look at the intensity of his stare !

The young one again

We move on and while I'm in the water I hear a sound like a drill. The dolphins suddenly accelerate and move away, too fast for me to follow. I look up and here comes this jetski guy and zooms too close by. Ai !!
We catch up again, paddle alongside the pod. They watch us intensively through the surface. I go in again. The big adults adopt me. When they look at me they look me deep into the eye - straight into my soul. Their stare speaks volumes.
Another jetski zooms by, then a motorboat and the session ends,
Like so many things in life.

Dolphin gang

it´s about 12h30. Chacha is here with me. The dolphins come from the north. We catch up with them easily. As soon as we are out there they turn towards us. They are five. There is the finless dolphin among the group.

Charlotte goes in first. The group stops and welcomes her and then continues. They are actually going quite fast and it is physically hard for Charlotte to follow. Charlotte regains the kayak and we row now until we catch up with the group. They swim with us, following underneath the kayak. We move forward a bit, then I slide into the water.

I know this group. There is a curious female that swims a long stretch next to me, looking at me from her dark eye. The group takes me in. They go slow enough for me to follow. We swim right, left, then under water, always extremely close. It is amazing.

Charlotte is next. It is amazing to see her swim right in the middle of the pod.
We move down a long stretch of the coast. I see one of the dolphins playing with a plastic bag, which he has on top of his snout.

When it is my turn we have reached our "final" bay. There is a fishing boat anchored there. Now one after the other of the dolphins scrubs along the chain, to scratch their back. It is an amazing sight. I think my camera´s batteries are empty, so not sure there will be pictures.
We continue for a good stretch. Eventually they dive into the deep blue again to hunt. I follow, but midway one of the dolphins turns around and escorts me back to the surface.

After another couple of dips Cha and I decide to call it quits. The dolphins, who have continued their way realize that I´m gone. They turn around and come back to us - fetching me! I go in once more, a jetski zooms close by and the session is over.

Evening session

It seemed like there would be no dolphins today. It was another one of these extremely hot Red Sea summer days. There are no Egyptians in our compound. They all have left for "Sahel", the North coast, where the wealthy crowd has their second or third secondary home.
The water temperature is 33°C by now and it will get hotter. Who knows how hot it is in the sun.
Only by adopting a vegetative state can one survive. That´s what I do, I´m there under the umbrella drinking a beer and watching the sea and thinking about life.
The day goes by, and the sun starts to set when finally my friends arrive. Unfortunately I´m all alone now, nobody to join me on the kayak. I row out there and when I arrive I start to film their arrival.



Once under my kayak I loose my equilibrium and fall into the water. Splash, the dolphins, shocked, move 20m away.

Back on the kayak I row and catch up with them quickly. I go in again, pulling the kayak with a string. My foot gets caught, the kayak is heavy and slows me down. I decide to abandon it.

The dolphins are in great spirits tonight. They are very playful and stay around. The sound underwater is increadible. Sonar and whistling as long as the session lasts.

This is a different group from last weekend. I recognize last years dolphin with the dent in the jaw and, imagine, he recognized me. We start to swim together. I swim next to him, follow him, he swims slowly, we swim circles, he dives, I dive, then we continue for a long stretch.

There is a crazy young dolphin. He comes and goes, speeding, then zigzaging, then jumping.
From a distance I see one of the young ones sticking out his head vertically out of the water to see where I am.




There are between 20 - 30 dolphins here tonight. They are quite stretched out. The youth in front and the old guard following behind. Once my young friend has left I find myself with the huge adults. They are zen and move in slow and essential moves.

I lift my head, where the heck is the kayak. It´s still where I left it, far far away.

Time to go...

Dolphin mega pod

This is what it looks like when you swim right inside the pod

The light in the water changed, so many dolphins were around

Swimming while communicating with the others

The dolphins were just centimeters away

It's not even 10:00 a.m. I'm out in the sea with Leo watching fish and talking marine life when I see a big splash at the other side of our bay. Dolphins !

I quickly row back, take fins masks and Raffaella, my wife, drop Leo, and out we row again. By the time we are out there again in front of the coral reef, which is about 60-70m, the dolphins have arrived.

There are many of them. The small ones are in the front. They are playing with each other, tickling, jumping, swimming belly up. It's a joy to watch.
Then come different groups of adults. I guess there are at least thirty dolphins here today. They stretch out over 100m. What a sight !

We paddle alongside them. They watch us from below, following below us. There is a crazy one zigzagging infront of us.

Then I glide softly into the water. Soon I'm surrounded by the pod. There are so many that the water darkens. We start swimming together, I'm one with the pod. The sound of sonar is clearly audible for as long as we swim together. There are more dolphins behind me that must be studying this weird phenomena that I represent.
They communicate by whistling. One of them swims with his mouth open. Is he whistling?
We swim like this for a good stretch, me part of the pod as my forces slowly fade. Boy, it is hard to keep up...

Raffaella, who followed me, picks me up. We start paddling, Raffaella paddles really well with strong even strokes, and soon catch up with the pod.

She is thrilled by the spectacle but does not feel like going in. So I go in again.

This time I'm swimming with a young adult group. They are really cool. I start following one specific one, singling him out, he senses it and breaks out of the group, turns back to approach me from behind, but this time I follow him and we start to swim in circles. Now the others are joining in to the game and it gets quite exciting. This group has decided to stay with me while the rest of the mega pod has moved on.
I'm so out of breath that I can't even dive anymore, breathing in short strokes. I call it quits and mount back on the kayak.
Now we are in the far away bay, our usual turning point.
I go in once more. My tube is not well attached and I drink a bucket of water... Yah. That must be what drowning is like.

Let's call it a day. This was as good as it gets.

The sharks were black tips

After intensive research is all the FAO reference guides about marine live in the Red Sea my friend Lorenzo has concluded that we did not see grey reef sharks. The sharks look very much like black tip sharks.
These are actually not always fun to be with. I wonder if they would have eaten us if we had been in the water....

Chinese whites return !

Look who is here...

It's around 13:00h, I spot the dolphins from afar. There is no wind and the water surface is flat like a mirror.
This time Paul joins me. We row out there with slow and strong strokes.
As we get closer I tell Paul that these are not bottlenose dolphins, they do look like Chinese whites ! This is the fourth time ever to see them and it is the third time they are here in a pod. There are six individuals. The adults are not very interactive but a young one is.

It´s one of six Chinese White Dolphins

The look is distinctly different from the more common bottlenose dolphins

The tail fin looks kind of deformed

Here is a good view of his mouth and breathing hole

Paul dips in, I follow with the kayak. A young dolphin comes and swims circles, comes very close, really checking us out. Swimming a few circles around us and then swims off again.
Most of the time the dolphins are unseen, but their sonar and whistling is audible. Than out of the blue they appear again...

Paul follows a dolphin

It's a nice rare session that lasts a good half an hour.
-
14:00
We are eating ( of course)
More dolphins come from the north again. But these are bottlenose dolphins. There are about 6 big adults. They are hunting. We follow them with the kayak but there is no underwater encounter.

19:30
It´s getting dark. Wind has picked up and we actually have waves !
Aldo, my father in laws says he just saw dolphins pass. It is so dark, I hardly can see anything. But I row out anyway. The sea is mean and the waves high. It´s just the condition the Ralf would enjoy !

Last weeks pod

Dolphin Love 

Cuddle

2:30 p.m.
It´s wind still and very hot today. The sea is flat like a mirror. The kayak glides effortlessly over the surface. The tide is slowly coming in. Dolphins never appear during low tide.

So here the come from the north this time. It is a group of six adults, male and females. I paddle alongside them for 50 meters, the dolphins look at me from below, and then I glide in. The group stops for me, takes me in. The one with the scars on his tail is here and the big one with the spotted belly. Then I see the big one with the square jaw. These are the adults from last weeks pod. We know each other....

We swim side by side down the bay. It´s a beautiful harmonious swim that lasts about 15 minutes.

I had abandoned the kayak when I went into the water. It is now but a little orange dot far away.
With a jerk I pull myself away from my soul mates and swim slowly back to the kayak.

I can´t help but wonder if there are any sharks around.

No dolphins today

Not one dolphins on both sides of the horizon today.

Full beach

The pod

Today is really busy here on the beach. Paul, Stephane, Armelle, Pat, Florence, Stephan, and Nicola are here as well as Philippe whenever he can. It's an eating and drinking day. Chill out.

11:00 a.m.
The dolphins come up from the south. They are far out, hunting.
At the same time Flo and Pat together with his kids and his brother and friend arrive. I invite anyone to come, now! Immediately! After quick coordination Pat's brother Nicola drops the toolbox and runs to the kayak. We row out there.

The dolphins appear every 5 min or so, take a breath and then take the deep dive, back curved and the tail fin sticks well out of the water before it disappears.

They are swimming in a line, raking up the sea floor.

We follow them for a kilometer, but don't swim together.

12:30
Here they come again - it's the return. This time Pat joins me. We paddle out there, I give it all. Pat tries hard too. We follow the group. There are five adults and they are traveling fast. We can't catch up. We stay a steady 10m behind over a period of 20 min without decreasing the distance. We return exhausted.

2 p.m.
The rest of the pod appears on the horizon. Stephan, Nicola's friend, joins me.
He goes in first and meets up with the group. The group passes. He mounts the kayak, we row a little and then I go in.

This is yesterday's pod. The young one is all over and around me. The big ones swim around me. We do 150 m together and then they move on. When I look up I expect to see Stephan in the kayak next to me but he is not there. I turn around. Here they come, Stephan with Stephane in the boat. She has tried to meet up swimming all the way out here, missing them. So she took a hike.

Nice guy but in a hurry

We try a threesome in the kayak but it doesn't work. We are too heavy, take water and are unstable. Stephane exits, the boat tilts and I'm in the water as well. Splash !

Now we have 100m to catch up, I give it all and a while later we are with them again. The dolphins are back hunting and are not interested in us.

We leave them and row back.

All this rowing today is getting us in top shape and on top we have a killer sun tan. I wished I could do this very thing for work...