Everybody loves dolphins.

We do one shore day so we’re not diving within 24 hours of a flight. Our hostess told us they’d take us out on a dolphin watching expedition. We accepted, not having any idea whether to expect any dolphins to show.

Our divemaster Tuks motors us for a half hour along the shore, the boat pelted with rain, but the storm causing a surprising stillness on the water, then out to sea, passed a shallow coral reef, and into an area where dolphins are found. Tuks spots a pod in the distance.

There’s nothing else on Earth that’ll inspire more child-like wonder in an adult than dolphins. The moment a sighting is announced every person on the boat rushes to the front of the boat, clings to a rail, and stays fixated there for the next thirty minutes. Everybody loves dolphins.

They play ball by swimming under our boat’s bow in eassy camerashot for quite some time before breaking off and performing aerial acrobatics at a distance. One juvenile in particular does a series of forward vertical somersaults that don’t seem like they should be physically possible. This species is appropriately named “spinner dolphin”.