After a few minutes of watching them play around the boat we slow down and everyone slides into the water. A young dolphin comes in to check out what’s happening, then two or three more and then it’s “dolphin soup” everywhere I look. People and dolphins swimming, diving and playing so close together that at times I’m not sure which is which. After a while the dolphins swim off to some unknown destination and everyone climbs back onto the boat with huge grins, tears and a profound sense of awe.

Life will never be the same after this. The curiosity and intrigue they brought with them is satisfied and in its place lies a new sense of wonder for these beautiful joyful beings. Though each have had their own individual experience, there also seems to be a stronger connection joining our human pod. As the boat sails back to the island, we have a few minutes of silence as the experience reaches deeper within, touching, changing, healing and finally bubbling up into laughter and joyful exchange. A tray of fresh fruit is passed around the boat and the sound of local calypso music drifts from the speakers as we dance our way back to the dock.

We stopped at rainbow reef for lunch and a swim. Saw a large sea turtle on the way to the mooring.

As we went in to check out the colorful fish and coral formations of the reef below us, a school of sergeant majors (small yellow and black striped fish) darted around the back of the boat. Closer to the bottom at about twenty feet, schools of french grunt and yellowtail snapper waited for us facing the current and just hanging out.

A little further under the rocks were lobster, squirrel fish and a filefish trying to disguise himself as a vertical piece of sea grass. A bit farther onto the reef a huge coral formation rises up from the ocean floor surrounded by more brightly colored fish and a stingray almost completely covered up in sand with only his eyes and tail showing.

Back aboard the DolphinQuest we finished our lunch and slowly moved out onto the banks to look for our dolphin friends. People napping, chatting with new friends, or simply immersed in the rhythm of the sea as we moved further from the tiny island of Bimini and out into what we call the “Dolphin grounds”. A few minutes later Vijan calls down from his spotting station to change course to 340 degrees. I ask him how far away they are and he says two to three hundred yards. In 10 minutes we hear people on the front of the boat scream “DOLPHINS!” Oohs and ahhs and squeals of joy as a baby spotted dolphin jumps out of the water just ten feet in front of the boat. He is soon joined by his mother and the rest of the pod.