Wednesday! Dolphin Day!

Well, Wednesday morning we woke with ideas of what we could do.  We mulled it over for a while and decided to book a spot on the Dolphin Cat.  But before we made it out on that voyage we lounged around and acted lazy.  That was fun. 

Then we made it out to the Dolphin Cat around 1 PM after grabbing a quick bite at one of the restaurants on the pier.

We made it out with very few people on our boat, it was the captain her helper and two other people besides us, which was nice.  We jetted across the water heading to where the dolphins typically frequented.  As we flew across the ocean salt-water sprayed us from the sides of the boat.  This was an interesting feeling since the water would dry off but the salt would stay, so our ears and such were filling up with salt!

Finally we made it to where the dolphins were hanging out.  I will let the photos speak for themsleves.

I was pretty proud of that last photo!  The dolphins were amazing.  Tons of them hung out in the area we went to and the guides made sure to keep the boats around them to a minimal intrusion as to not upset the dolphins.  The dolphins played and jumped frequently around us, it was truly exceptional.  FYI - You cannot swim with the dolphins in Florida or the US as they are federally protected, hence the boat tour.

NEXT - Snorkeling!

Our tour boat took us out to a remote part of the reef and I prepared to disembark.  I have never snorkeled before so it was somewhat scary and exciting all at once.  My tour guides assured me that nothing dangerous would be in the water so any sting rays and sharks would be hiding or asleep, so out I went into the deep blue (well not so deep where we were).

I had to use a pool noodle to float as my body is unfortunately not very bouyant.

I got close to the reef and looked down to see...

Yep - That is a sting ray, swimming right toward me.  AHHHH - I panicked inside but remained motionless as he swam effortlessly by.  I thought these things were supposed to be asleep during the day and hey, one of these killed that crocodile hunter guy, so I was understandably frightened, but he didn't care that I was there and went and settled down into the sand a few yards away from me.  Whew, what a relief.  I continued on and found some brain corral and some cool fish as well.

I kept sucking water into my snorkel and water kept rushing under my mask and into my nose, so I had to retreat from the waters.  Our catamran rushed us back across the waters to port.  Now I was sunburnt and exhausted, but it was fun!  That night we visited Mallory square again and watched some more of the street performances before heading in for some much needed sleep.