Depart 10.00, stop to snorkel at 14.30; depart again 16.00 and arrive at anchor 18.30.
DOLPHINS!!!! Just heading out of Whale Bay under power and spotted large pod of bottlenose dolphins off starboard bow. Larger than common dolphins and grey with white bellies. At least 30-40 in the pod, many with babies swimming alongside. See video of one swimming upside down under our bow. The kissing noises are me and notice the dolphin swimming on his side, checking me out - eye to eye!!! Amazing. We saw another smaller pod about 40 minutes later - these were common dolphins with a white belly and yellow flank - 2 calves and 2 females with the rest males who came very close to the boat and stayed with us for about half an hour, enjoying our company! So neat to be within reaching distance of these beautiful creatures and hear their breath as they surface and watch their blow hole open and shut. Their playfulness and permanent smiling faces were so uplifting and a pure joy to behold. Practiced sail trim with Skipper Bob moving cars back to give sail head more curve and so capture more wind (in light winds). For all you sail buffs, this is a good way to experiment. Generally car goes forward upwind (more gas!) and back downwind (less gas!) but in light winds its the reverse. Good lesson for me anyway! As the 3rd instructor in our crew of 5, I am the least experienced and so this is all very useful (good to visualise all the theory from the sailing books I'm always reading on sail trim!) At helm for about an hour on close reach with a couple of tacks and arrived at Cavalli Islands (think fashion designer!) to stop for a snorkel. Water warm (about 24 degrees) but churned up from cyclone that passed thru Bay of Islands just last week!! Saw small sting ray (black top and longer tail than eagle rays) Few small reef fish - periwinkle blue with white spots behind eyes. Lots of brown seaweed and micro-organisms in water.
Steak dinner at 7pm at anchor after a long day's sailing - sat out in the cockpit and enjoyed the red sunset and watched the stars all come out in the milky way.
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