Dolphin Delight, Tehuantepec, and Sea Turtles
"“… a dream hangs over the whole region.
—The Log from the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck
Betty and I were anchored on a remote bay in the Sea of Cortez enjoying a cocktail when we spotted hundreds of sleek-bodied, glistening, dark gray and cream-colored dolphins surfacing, vaulting, piercing the sparkling water as far as the eye could see. In our 12 years of cruising, we had countless encounters with dolphins. It was not uncommon to have a pod of six to eight playing in our bow wake. On this occasion and it was an occasion, frolicking dolphins by the hundreds were gliding and leaping clear of the water in perfect arcs. We were delighted by the dolphin performance and its cast of hundreds!
Dolphins are said to be one of the most intelligent animals in the world. One remarkable dolphin tale was the dolphin ‘thank you.” Our cruising friends were anchored in a bay off the coast of Venezuela where they saw an injured dolphin with a fishing line tangled around its fins. They managed to free it. That evening the dolphin found shiny bits of stone and metal on the ocean bottom, picked them up and deposited them in our friend’s dinghy, which was tied some 20 feet off their stern.
Another curious event happened to friends who were caught in a storm off the coast of the Tehuantepec. Their boat was taking so much water they thought it was going to sink so they abandoned ship and took to their life raft. The storm abated but they were miles off the coast. For three days they drifted in the boiling sun. Their water was gone, and they were not sure they could make it another day when two dolphins glided up and started pushing their raft. Our friends said they could not have been pushed more than 20 or 30 feet but come dawn the next day they were rescued by a Mexican fishing boat. They swore the dolphins were trying to push them into the path of the rescuers.
Tehuantepec Gulf is the body of water that is on the Pacific side of the narrowest part of lower Mexico. Because Chivela Pass, the mountain gap across the isthmus is low, winds that build up in the Gulf of Mexico funneled through the Gap, become concentrated and can become very fierce. And, because the water is shallow huge 20-foot waves can build up. Also, the high winds that are funneled through pickup sand from the beach and can literally sandblast a yacht on the Pacific side.
We were scared to death as we approached our Tehuantepec Gulf crossing and we tried to stay right next to the beach to avoid being caught in the huge waves. As it turned out we caught a calm day and about halfway across I decided to leave the beach and head directly for the other side. There was no wind, so we motored.
As we got to the open water, we saw the most extraordinary sight. There were hundreds of sea turtles resting on the surface and on the back of every turtle was a bird. We assume the birds were there to rest and to pick growths off the turtles’ backs. As we would approach a turtle it would dive, and the gull would fly off. The sea turtles and their passengers were an unexpected thrill.