On Saturday morning, we hooked up with Bill & Nowdla Keefe's Bimini Undersea dive shop for a two-tank dive.  Since 1987, the Keefe's have owned and operated Bimini Undersea, which is located within the Bimini Big Game Resort & Marina on the south end of North Bimini Island.  Their hard work and dedication have established BU as one of the most popular small, family-run dive operations in the resort diving industry.  We visited with BU and their awesome staff for a day of diving and boating.

Our adventure began at 9:00 am.  We met at the dock where the dive boat "ADVENTURER", a 42-foot dive vessel powered by twin diesel engines, was prepped and ready for departure.  On this morning, our captain was Audley Dean.  Audley was born and raised in Bimini and was a fountain of knowledge on the Islands of Bimini and the awesome dive sites offshore.  As we stowed our gear and got comfortable on the ADVERNTURER, Audley briefed us on the plans for the morning, the sea conditions, and sites we'd be visiting. 

Our first stop was a spot known as The Kinks.  One of the great things about scuba diving in Bimini is that the dive spots are not far offshore.  It took us maybe 20 minutes tops to reach this location.  Audley expertly rigged all our gear and then told us all about the site we were about to visit.  He told us exactly what to look for, including a fascinating story about a large crab and a small nurse shark which have been fighting for one particular ledge under the mooring line.  On this day, apparently the shark had won because, sure enough, I found the nurse shark under the exact ledge Audley described!   The reef itself was interesting and was home to plenty of marine life.  It has a sandy bottom with small coral heads rising about 4 feet from the sea floor.  The depth averages about 40 feet on the east edge and about 45-50 feet on the west.  The water temperature on this day was a warm 84°F at depth!

After a short surface interval, we made our way to our next dive spot known as The Strip.  The Strip is a small densely populated (loaded with fish!) reef about 240 feet long and perhaps 40 feet wide.  The Strip runs north and south, almost exactly perpendicular to North Bimini.  Max depth here is a comfortable 40 feet ? a great spot for a second dive.  Audley rigged our second tank, gave us a thorough and expert briefing of the site, and then helped us into the water.  He told us to look for "Big Boy", a large Moray that has made his home on the north end of the Strip.  I didn't find Big Boy on this dive, but I did see a few spotted eels and large schools of Yellowtail.  Visiting The Strip is like swimming in an aquarium!  Some of the coral heads rise 8 feet from the sea floor creating lots of nice ledges and crevices, which draw an abundance of sea critters.  Watch where you stick your hands ? scorpion fish are plentiful here. 

We were back at the dock by 1:30 that afternoon, fired up and sharing tales of what we saw.  After a spectacular lunch of fresh grouper and conch at the Big Game, I walked back over to BU to thank the staff for a wonderful day on the water.  Nowdla asked us if we had plans for the afternoon and invited us to join them for a Dolphin Encounter.  She said "you can't leave Bimini without experiencing our wild dolphin encounter."  Intrigued, we accepted and were on the BU vessel DESTINY by 4:30 pm for a 4-hour trip to find and swim with wild dolphin!

I'm not sure how much of it is true, but Melanie and Cathy, our fine captains on this trip, recited a captivating tale of how BU got started with the dolphin excursions.  Melanie began her story by telling us of the legends and lore of Bimini and the lost city of Atlantis.  She told us of the fabled connection between dolphins and the Atlantians, and  how many have long believed that Bimini is a remnant of the ancient city.  She said that several years back, BU was asked by a group of people interested in Atlantis to help them find dolphin.  Not ones to turn down a challenge, BU agreed and was surprised to actually find pods of dolphin exactly where the group had told them they'd find them. 

Since 1996, Bimini Undersea has been researching and tracking the activities and behaviors of wild Spotted and Bottle Nosed dolphin.  They currently run a research program in conjunction with The Dolphin Communication Project  (D.C.P.), a private, non-profit research foundation that is working to promote awareness of marine mammal conservation, and to better understand how dolphins communicate.  On our trip, Darcy and Kelly from DCP were onboard to document sightings and GPS datum.

About an hour into the excursion we came across two Spotted Dolphins!  The pair stayed with our boat for a good 10 minutes, riding the wake from our bow and darting to and fro underneath the boat.  Very cool!  The passengers ? myself included ? were mesmerized by the antics of the dolphins and we were ready to get in the water for a close encounter.  The crew, however, suggested that we move on in search of a larger pod since these two were most likely feeding and only moderately interested in our presence.  So we motored on.  After another two hours of searching we did not find any more dolphins.  We were all a little bummed as we started to head in, but still thrilled with our earlier encounter.  A swim with the dolphins would have been great. 

BU reports a success rate of over 80% for a dolphin encounter.  No trip is ever guaranteed since these are all wild dolphins -- they are not fed or penned. 

As the sun began to set, we set our course back to Bimini.  About 30 minutes from home, Cathy slowed the boat and excitedly pointed across the bow.  Pod!  Pod!  Pod!  Wow, 15 or more Bottle Nosed dolphins!  It was getting dark, but the call was made to get in the water and see if they'd interact.  The passengers excitedly donned their masks and snorkels and climbed in off the stern.  The dolphins stayed!  They darted underneath and through the group of swimmers.  They seemed to really enjoy our presence.  This surprised even the BU and DCP crew since Bottle Nosed are usually less playful than the Spotted, and because this pod had young calves.

What a great experience! 

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