Aloha from the Big Island! Gail & I are visiting friends Jon & Sharona Lomberg this week at their home on the Kona Coast. The calm blue waters are home to spinner dolphins who come to rest during the day in the quiet shallow bays.
They are called spinners because of their spinning leaps into the air which I watched from the shore. Soon I and a few other curious onlookers were in the water and swimming beside them!
These masters of the sea are not shy, in fact they're quite playful, but this is their time to rest and sleep. Since they still need to rise to the surface to breathe, they let each hemisphere of their brain sleep alternately.
If you should one day find yourself swimming among dolphins, please respect them by keeping your distance. Don't swim at them. Let them swim to you.