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January 16th, Monday - Road Bay, Anguilla
Dolphin Discovery was pretty cool and worth the trip,
despite the big price tag. Of course, having
Cassie and Juliana there enhanced the experience, as
their excitement and amazement was quite contagious.
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Upon our arrival in Anguilla on Saturday, Joe made
inquiries about the dolphin swim with the immigration
office. Although Anguilla has its own government,
it is part of the British West Indies and under the
general rule of Great Britain. When checking in at
a new port of call, in all but the USVI, just the
captain goes ashore with all the crew's passports and
ship's documents. When we checked out in
Philipsburg, Sint Maarten, we discovered that our ship
documentation states our gross tonnage as 50 when in
reality it is closer to 10 tons. Some of the
islands charge a fee based upon this figure, and
Anguilla is one of those places. We knew this
would be an issue so we were ready to present other
documents to support our claims despite what our
official documentation showed. Joe had a bit
of a hassle getting through all that with the three
customs ladies, but came out of it an hour later with a
clearance for Zia, a couple of new friends, and an
appointment for us to swim with the dolphins the next
day at 1:30pm.
Our friendly cab driver, Accelyn, picked us up at
noon and filled us in on a little history of the island
on the 20 minute trip to Dolphin Discovery.
Anguilla used to belong to the federation of British
islands that included St. Kitts and Nevis.
Anguillans were frustrated, however, because the seat of
government lay in St. Kitts, and whenever the crown
would send over supplies for Anguilla, they never made
it past St. Kitts. In 1967, armed with barrels of
oil and sticks, they fought their "war of independence."
They used the sticks to make barricades on the runway,
and would spill the oil in the sea, lighting it on fire
to prevent attack by water. Simply by keeping
their enemies off the island, they were victorious.
The main industry here is tourism, and there are a lot
of building projects on the island, including a big new
golf course community with homes starting at $1.4
million. The beauty of the island is undeniable,
being 15 miles long and 3 miles wide and quite low in
altitude. The coastline is littered with beautiful
white sandy beaches and sparkling crystal clear water.
Even Road Bay, the main anchorage, enjoys these
features. The regulations for cruising here are a
bit restrictive. You pay about $40 a day if you
want to anchor anywhere but Road Bay. We are going
to get a one day cruising permit for today and try to
visit a couple of the other pristine and isolated
beaches before leaving tomorrow.
Accelyn dropped us at the water park where we got to
watch the end of the previous group's adventure and
enjoy lunch before our turn. The program begins
with a video presentation that tells you what to expect
once you get in the pool with the dolphins. We
were in the "Discovery" group which meant that we got to
pet the dolphins, kiss and "dance" with them.
There were two other programs that offered a ride, and a
boost through the water with the dolphins pushing your
feet. As the age limit for either of these
programs was 8, we stuck with the basic one ($89/kid,
$99/adult). It got us about 30 minutes in the
water with "Al," an 18 year old male dolphin. We
shared our time with Al with a Brazilian family and Al's
trainer, Rene. Joe opted to sit out the
adventure and serve as the family photographer. Of
course, the official photographer ($15 a photo, $29 for
a video of the whole program) was able to get right up
close, while Joe had to stay outside the gated area.
The Discovery Group walked along the underwater platform
that lined the sides of the pool to the far end where
Rene had Al perform a number of tricks, including waving
at us and splashing us with his tail. He then
instructed him to swim past us for our first feel of
real live dolphin flesh. Being careful not to
touch Al's face, blowhole, eyes, or ears, we lay our
hands flat in front of us in the water, and Al swam
along the edge of the platform allowing us to run our
palms along his back, dorsal fin and tail.
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It
was pretty awesome, touching this majestic creature as
if he were our pet. We have had several
opportunities to watch dolphin in the wild, swimming
past and around the boat, and it never fails to thrill
us. They are such graceful and friendly looking
animals, always curious about their temporary neighbor
and her passengers. We had heard some talk about
these dolphins suffering from stress as a result of all
the human contact and living in captivity, but we saw no
signs of that in the 8 or 10 dolphins we saw. Upon
inquiry, we were told that these dolphins live twice as
long as their wild brethren, enjoying a steady food
supply and regular medical attention. Wild
dolphins live up to 25 years and those in captivity can
live up to 50.
The dolphin kiss and "dance" were mostly for the benefit
of the program's photographer. Holding your hands
palms up, one on top of the other, Al placed his chin in
your hands, and you would draw his snout up to your
cheek for a "kiss" which you then returned smack on the
dolphin's mouth. It felt kind of silly, in
reality, but it was cute. Unfortunately, the best
picture Joe was able to get was of my kiss, but you can
sort of make out Cassie and Jules with the dolphin as
well.
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Cassie and Juliana loved the whole thing, although
Cassie spent a bit of time lamenting that she wasn't
able to get the ride on the dolphin's belly. She
consoled herself with the thought that next time we
could spring for the ride program ($129). It was
an expensive day, but lots of fun. The girls both
practically fell asleep over dinner (we cooked up more
of the Mahi Mahi we caught on the way over to Simpson
Bay) after the day's excitement and the previous
evening's difficulty sleeping. Joe is buying a few
groceries while I post this update at our favorite
beachside restaurant with internet access. I'll
close with a few more photos. Enjoy MLK day and
send us an email when you get a minute. We love
hearing from you.
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XOXO
Christy, Joe, Cassie and Juliana
Next entry
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Many thanks to our
friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up
the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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