March 30, 2016
As we were leaving Kumutoto Bay, we were joined by two Hector’s dolphins. Here’s a little video…
There were a couple amazing things about this encounter. First, they’re beautiful and somewhat rare dolphins and I don’t think it’s all that common for them to hitch a ride in the bow wave. The truly amazing thing is how they hitched a ride.
We were just coming out of the bay and some idiot forgot to put the dinghy wheels up (me). We stopped, I climbed into the dinghy and took care of the oversight. As I climbed back on board, I saw a dolphin. Now picture the gesture you’d make if your hands were tied behind your back, you had no voice, and you wanted to get your friend to follow you and chase after the ice cream truck. Kind of a shoulder and head thrust in the direction of the cold, creamy goodness. That’s what the dolphin did. I swear it. I knew immediately what he wanted. I pushed the throttle forward, off we went, and off he went, with his friend to play in the bow wave. I’ll never forget this clear communication.
The two of them stayed with us only a short time. I don’t think our bow wave is big enough to be very interesting. That’s good for fuel economy but bad for dolphin sports.
Here is a picture of Hector’s dolphins from Wikipedia. And here’s what they have to say about them.
To our two friends… thanks for joining us, if only briefly. It was a real joy! -Rich
