The dolphins of Ibiza

picture by Cello Schnyder

Here we go again !
Who would have imagined that ever another article would be added to the dolphin blog. It seemed that this book was closed.

This trip to the Balearic is something like a family reunion. My mother has a secondary home here and my brother moved with his family to this island seven years ago. It is the first time since I left Egypt to return to the seaside. Understandably my eyes are fixed upon the line just below the horizon and I fall back into the same gazing trance as when I sat days on end on the Red Sea coast waiting for my friends.
"Are there any dolphins here?" I asked everybody I encounter. My brother explains that they only appear during winter and that he has seen them on two occasions in seven years. Boat owners I talk to never saw any. Still, whenever we approach the coast I fall silent and stare at the sea.

Normally people search the horizon for boats, islands, birds or other obvious instances. After awhile that becomes monotonous. It is by looking at the texture of the surface when the sea unveils its hypnotic power, when it becomes obvious that the sea is alive, moving with its very own rhythm, and slowly, while the wind blows through your hair, you forget yourself and melt into the surrounding.
Two days ago Cello and his partner Ruth, who own one of these classical motorboats with a cabin and room for seven people from the sixties invite us to a boat trip.
Cello is a Swiss filmmaker for advertising spots and Ruth retails furniture. Both are very unconventional personalities, very young and spontaneous at heart, unpretentious and what people call a real "Mensch".
So here we are, meeting up in a coffee shop by the port. And we all connect effortless. This will promises to be a beautiful trip.
And as the boat moves slowly past the coast, this is not a fast boat, we talk, drink beer and relax.
Suddenly, we must have been away for half an hour or so, two dolphins pop out of the water maybe 20 meters on the right side of the boat. Screams of excitement ! The kids go wild ! Now everyone scans the surface...
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Later we lay anchor in the small bay of a privately owned island. The sea is still quite cold at this time of the year and there is shockingly few fish in the sea.
I remember finding seahorses and starfish on the coast off of Malaga when I was a kid, and seeing a wide variety of fish. Nowadays the Mediterranean sea is empty and only few species are left. After throwing bread crumbs into the water all the fish from the bay gather under our boat. I was snorkeling around the bay, stopped to clean my mask when I hear my brother yelling and waving from the deck of the boat. What does he want ? What does he say ? Dolphins ? Where ? And then I see them as well, a pod ! Wow ! There are pods !! That means they stay permanently around here ! Out there, however, out of reach, and on their way.

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The day passes. Its time to move on. Before going back to the port Cello suggests to circle the small island. Under his surveillance my brother steers the ship. As we move slowly around the rocks we come towards the high cliffs that is overlooked by a beautiful light tower. The water is deep on this side. We are all spread out around the boat enjoying the trip when the pod appears again. They are approximately 50 m away from our boat moving the opposite direction. "Benjamin," I scream, " stop the engine!". A seconds later I´m in the water. Quickly swimming away from the boat I dive down two meters or so and call out, making a tooting sound through the snorkel.
The water is crystal clear and the sun's light creates long diagonal streaks that fade in the deep blue below me. It feels a bit like flying when you see how much depth lays below you. Who knows what kind of creatures watch me from below....
Suddenly a vague dark spot appears far below, travelling parallel to me, moving closer and the closer it gets the clearer I see its contours. A dolphin ! And a second in the shadow below !!

Diving down I toot again, feet locked and hands close to my body. Then it all happens very quickly, he circles , then jumps around me out of the water in a square excitedly, vanishes, and then, before seeing anything I hear a concert of whistles. The pod zooms in !
Nine adult dolphins, one flips over and swims belly up very close by. They watch and whistle and circle around me and check me out - then their curiosity is quenched and they move away. I am alone again.
The others on the boat are just as stunned as myself. Each one of them would have loved to be in the water with them. When y encounter dolphins you have to act fast. Now they know, next time they will be able to catch up with them too.
Fee and Luca, my brother's children, are enchanted. On our way back we don't stop marvelling and contemplating about this magic and incredible day.
Thank you, Cello and Ruth !! This day could not have been more perfect !

The encounter took place Sunday, 27th of may 2012 in the afternoon.

The final session

Charlotte & Nicole

All our belongings are packed in boxes, the house is empty and without a soul. This is the end of our time in Egypt. We are relieved from life in this frantic and impossible city, no more of these traffic jams, these mornings when pollution is so bad that one can hardly see 50 m, no more nervous breakdowns due to the local culture, but also no more weekends by the sea, no more dolphins, and no more family as we knew it. A new phase is coming, transition, reinvention, with quite a bit fear of the unknown. It is as frightening as it is exciting.

"You will miss the dolphins", my friends say.
But I do not see it this way. Each and every encounter was a gift. What counts is what I had, not what we will not have in the future. Thank god for it.

So here we are, the very last day, on the beach, without the beach chairs, they are already packed. It's another beautiful day, flat sea, no wind, hot and sunny. It's 3p.m. when I spot the dolphins up on the northern stretch of our beach. This time we borrow a second kayak and go out there all five of us. Charlotte shares a kayak with Nicole, whose shark phobia has kept her on land for most of the time. The other kayak seats Leonard, Valentina and me. We row towards the pod which is not moving. They stay pug infront of the public beach. When finally we arrive Charlotte and I go in, I then take Leo along.

Leo just turned six. The cask of his broken arm was just taken off a few days before and he trained hard with his mask and fins on the beach to be ready for day X. Now he is ready and the dolphins appear...

I hold Leo by the arm, close by me. Here they come, very close, looking at Leo, they whistle clearly, communicating between each other. They swim circles, reappearing again and again. Leo is thrilled (and so am I).

Leo, 6 years old, meeting the pod 

Charlotte swims with a dolphin

Nice shot, dolphin coming up to breathe

Again and again belly up

Me

The dolphins don't move today, they remain in this part of the bay. Other swimmers have arrived.
To my surprise the dolphin with the cut jaw is here. We have had so many intense sessions with him and his mate, that the initial barrier of distrust has long been broken. He is here in a group of four very playful dolphins. There is another group close by. They are playing with the new born. That group stays also fix in the bay, but they move away as soon as we approach.

Charlotte has become integral part of the four dolphin group. She swims and dives together with them and has transformed herself. She has become a dolphin herself. This is everybody's dream come true.

The dolphins have started to move down south now. We follow them and go in ove and over again. Leo is attached to my hand in the water, while Valentina and Nicole follow with the kayak.

We move slowly down the coast.

Finally, at 5:45 p.m., nearly three hours later !!!, we return to the beach.
This was an worthy farewell.

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When I reflect upon these extraordinary experiences I feel that we have been taught a few lessons:
The first one is that we never own the other. Any encounter is based on the other one's explicit interest to come and share the moment. Dolphins are free, and so should we be. We cannot take their arrival for granted. Each time is a special occasion, every encounter is a gift.

And life is now. Sitting by the beach watching the horizon for hours is in itself a pleasure. It is part of the final moment when the pods arrive. So even the waiting, this moment of emptying the mind and cancelling out all thoughts is important. It is the ying to the yang, the emptiness to the fullness.

These encounters have been a source of immense quantity of positive energy. Cairo is a city in collapse. Traffic death, pollution, lack of organization and abusive slum growth. Without this fountain of joy I would not have lasted that long. Everybody should search for this kind of fountain of positive energy outside his work arena.

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It is very likely that as the children grow up and the coast is being developed the dolphins habitat will disappear. Overfishing, noise by jet skis and motorboats, and waste and pollution will be hard to stop. The last twenty years have brought incredible change go Egypt. The next twenty years will do the rest.
It is with distress that I follow the news and hear about abusive fishing and construction on Egypt´s Red Sea costs.
And I thank life for having been able to experience all this.

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.