The wind was picking up and the waves were building. Over the starboard beam, Marli noticed a dolphin and called out, like we do every time we see one, "Dolphin!" We all looked, and we saw a whole pod of dolphins porpoising towards our boat one after the other like a multi-shot roman candle. Then they surrounded the boat. A few at the bow, a few along the sides, and a few astern. They swam playfully right next to and under the hull, swimming quickly to keep up with us, breaching out of the water. Criss crossing over and under each other. We felt as if they were escorting us along our journey.
Then, all at once, as if one had given a cue, they swam away to port and aft of our boat. Fanned out along the horizon, more than a dozen abreast, they jumped fully out of the water at the same time, three or four times. The grand finale. It was amazing! It was choreographed. It was Disney. We couldn't believe it. Jason almost caught a video, but accidentally hit pause. Womp womp. We kept on thinking back to this moment throughout the day, and we all agreed that it was the most exciting dolphin encounter ever.