The title I stole from a dive travel writer years ago. I would laugh with friends about it and say, "What the hell is festooned with pristine beauty and brilliance anyway?" Well today my day was festooned with pristine beauty and brilliance! I have video to prove it. Click on this youtube link to see the video that I shot with my Canon 1Ti. The winds switched to the summer trades from the southeast. When we rounded the western tip of Isla there wasn't a whitecap insight. As we approached the "start" waypoint we could see the horizon literally covered in birds, their flying patterns very different from the herding bird wild goose chase we had been on yesterday. As we approached the first of the feeding pods we realized that it wasn't just sailfish; there were dolphin (mammals not dolphin fish) everywhere.
The water was cold and green and. with the time of day, there was very little light. I jumped in on the first bait ball which seem to be traveling a million miles per hour into the current and far from me. I got in and three seconds later there was a trail of sardines, sailfish, dolphins and frigate birds headed for the horizon. This went on and on, in the boat, out the boat, in the boat, etc. Our practiced true and tried tactics from Friday had no effect on today's action. It didn't take long for me to work out who the %&@# culprits were... the dolphins! After today if I never see another dolphin it will be too soon.
The success we'd had earlier this week was based on getting the bait ball under the boat and calming things down before I jumped in. The bait would then hang around me as it perceived shelter from the attacking sails. But Flipper and friends wouldn't allow any sort of respite and relentlessly drove the bait into the path of other dolphins, leaving the sails to take opportunistic shots at the bait while the dolphins regrouped.
This went on for almost two hours turning my legs to jelly trying to swim after the fast moving action. Captain Larry finally found a small bait ball far from the intersecting mayhem that surrounded us for miles. The same culprits were there but the scale was smaller and more isolated. This ball was also in cleaner water. We soon worked out a new game plan: attack, attack, attack. I'm talking Tora! Tora! Tora! Larry would back right into the ball causing Flipper and Company to back off long enough for me to get in and take over the bait. The sails would soon return, I'm convince relieved that the bullies had been driven off and they could now set up the hold and strike patterns which work so well for them. This would give me about 5 or 10 minutes where I was in a position to breath, think, and shoot without finning at high speed. The dolphins would wait on the perimeter of visibility for the sails to open a gap and let the sardines make a run for it. There would be a volley of squeaks and clicks and mammals would come charging in between the sardines and me and dive the ball off into the distance out of my reach.
A big leg workout but worth all the effort. Watching the interaction between the mammal and fish predators was amazing. Unfortunately the dolphins would not allow me close enough to photograph them. After jumping in with them the first few times it was obvious that these were not bottlenose dolphins. After looking at the video, I'm going to guess that they were rough tooth or steno dolphins. After three or four hours of getting in and out of the boat my legs gave up. I put on the long lens for jump shots and sat back as the crew put out lines. Almost immediately they were into a triple sailfish hookup. Life is good.
Back at the dock early, cold Dos Equis in hand, it's a great end to a day festooned in pristine beauty and brilliance!
No comments:
Post a Comment