12/04/2013 – Flipper & Family

Attention, People of the Cabbage Tree Bay swimming community (aka Bold & Beautiful Swim Squad). Today we had the pleasure of swimming with one of the smartest creatures on the planet. No, in this instance I wasn’t thinking of Jane Stephens or John Kelly, although you would be forgiven for your assumption, as they are both known to be curious and playful which are signs of intelligence. But this time I refer to the pod of Southern Bottlenosed Dolphins that joined the 7am B&B swim today.

“And the baby dolphins were only about this big”, explains a dripping wet Jenny Menzies after emerging from one of our absolutely best swims ever.
Dolphins – tick. Sunshine – tick. High visibility – tick. Warm water (22.4 degrees) – tick. Lots of friendly faces (221!) – tick. I even swam right into Neptune who was stretching his Lord of the Sea limbs right next to the dolphins – tick. For a moment there I felt like Salacia, the female divinity of the sea, worshipped as the goddess of salt water. Tick 🙂

 

It was a perfect morning, and I hope our 13 newcomers felt truly welcome by the metaphorical red carpet we rolled out for you today. Above is a picture of one of them, Sarah, signing her life away. Good luck Sarah with your new addiction (oh yes it will be).

There was a hustle and there was a bustle to get us all ready.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Shelly Beach, the joviality continued unabated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the lovely Karen was our guest celeb ‘Let’s Go’ person. “Let’s go see if there are any dolphins to great us back over there”, I’m sure I overheard her say. Oracle!

 

“Look at those intelligent mammals we just swam with”, was the collective sigh heard around the South Steyne corner of our beautiful beach.

 

 

 

According to our friend and local environmentalist, Eco Divers’ Dave Thomas, this is the same pod of Southern Bottlenose Dolphins that return to our beaches every year at around this time. Some of the dolphins have scars on their dorsal fins, making the individuals easy to identify.

Dave told me some sad news and some great news. I’ll give you the sad first, which is that the divers have now found two dead juvenile blind sharks with elastic headband around their gills. Ladies and gentlemen, please use your flattering pink caps to tuck your hair in, or else shave it all off.

The great news is that we can expect the whales to return soon, ie in the month of May. We can look forward to seeing mainly Humpbacks but also Southern Rights. Dave also told me the likelyhood of swimming with whales is now substantially higher than last year (!) because the Sea Shepherd prevented the hunters from catching 982 whales.

At the Table of Knowlege and the Table of Wisdom it was all about exchanging information about dolphins. “A dolphin pod has 2 to 12 dolphins”, said Chris to Greg and John who were all ears.

 

“When a female dolphin has a baby dolphin, the dolphin is born tail first, so it can
go right to the top of the ocean and it can take a breath. A family member of
the dolphin mother will help the mother dolphin have its baby dolphin”, Sue informed a small gathering of avid learners.

 

“A dolphin’s face muscles are below a thick layer of blubber. The jaw bones,
blubber, and skin make a dolphin’s face. Even when it is afraid or angry, a
dolphin looks like it is smiling”, explains Libby to an incredulous Nick.

 

“Dolphins need oxygen to live. But dolphins are able to send oxygen-rich blood to the
brain and heart. When dolphins dive, they store oxygen in their blood, muscles,
and small blood vessels called retia” Libby continues.

“But would you know, dolphins can also slow down their heart
rate, so they use their oxygen supply slowly. Even when a dolphin is swimming
very slowly, it comes to the surface for only a very short time. It needs to
know the exact time that its blow hole hits the surface, so that it doesn’t
breathe in water and drown” Libby concludes her lecture.

 

“Can I just add that a dolphin has a lot of feeling around its blow
hole. It can feel the differences between water and air. Dolphins can stay
under water for 8 minutes and can dive to a depth of 500 feet”, said Jenny K before taking another sip of coffee.

 

We have some great sponsors who help to keep the B&B going so please have a good look on the left hand side of the blog! Did you know Bold and Beautiful swimmers get $2 takeaway coffees from Bluewater?  Just show your B&B discount card! (you can get these cards from ..Lesley)

Murrays at Manly is another sponsor and offers us Happy Hour priced drinks next Wednesday evening from 6pm. So come along and meet your fellow B&Bers all scrubbed up and dressed up!

You can also get lots of other discounts from our sponsors – see who they are on the left side of blog.

So long and thank you for all the fish, says Girl Friday Blogger Anna (a teeny bit more flat chested than last Friday..)