Nga Niho Pa

Sunday 6th November
We had an 8am Swim with the Dolphins trip today so we were up early and ready at the meet point. I wasn’t at all confident about swimming in the open ocean with the dolphins but put on a wetsuit in case. Peter was very keen to do it and Janet had decided just to watch. The boat was like a substantial cabin cruiser but very powerful with a couple of wide steps into the sea at each side at the rear of the boat. The bottom step was in the ocean and had grab rails around it. It only took about 20 mins to get to where the dolphins were thought to be. After a quick tutorial on snorkelling and tips on how to attract the interest of the dolphins the horn blasted which was the signal that dolphins had been seen and it was ok to go into the water. The crew knew I was very nervous about the whole thing and I was holding back to the end of the group before going in the water. I have a strong gag reflex and do tend to panic if I start to gag, often ending up hyperventilating. My biggest fear was that this would happen in the ocean when I was snorkelling and I might drown. However, I really did want to swim with the dolphins and this got the better of my fear, so very gingerly and with lots of encouragement from the crew, after everyone else had gone, I sat on the rear step of the boat and, with a last deep breath slipped into the sea. It was cold and this did make me gasp a bit but that was not scary. I also had a floatation jacket on as I thought this might give me confidence I could not drown, but in fact it got in the way more than helped and I kept rolling over so I decided to replace it with a noodle. This was also a bit of a hindrance so I decided to go with just a float. I found this much better. By now it was time for everyone to come back on board as the dolphins had moved and the crew wanted to drive the boat closer to where they had gone to. The boat stopped again and everyone got back into the water. Peter was doing well and was in the crowd with the dolphins swimming around them. Once again I slipped in and for a few minutes managed to paddle around near the back of the boat with my face in the water, breathing correctly through my snorkel and looking for dolphins. I felt a little more confident now so when we had to go back to the boat to move on again I thought I would go in once more. I preferred waiting until the end as I felt no pressure to keep up. The crew kept calling out encouragement and I managed to swim around a little but not as well as before and began to panic about being in the sea, the boat seemed a long way away but in reality, was no more than 10-12’. I was really scared now and splashing around. I got myself closer to the boat and one of the crew leant down and I was half dragged whilst pulling myself as best I could to scramble onto the step. I firmly decided not to go in again and I think really I should not have gone in the third time as when I got back on board I felt very queasy. I managed to get dressed and sat next to an American Chinese lady who had only been in the water once but was also not very confident and felt sick too. Brightly coloured buckets were given to each of us in case we felt we needed to use them. Neither of us was actually sick thankfully. However, I continued to feel panicky on the boat and began to hyperventilate. The crew were very good and talked to me calmly which helped and wrapped me in a big blanket which was very cosy. Back on land I sat on a bench by the boat, still feeling rather ill, one of the other swimmers who was a doctor came to see if I was ok which was very kind of him. We went back to our B&B where we had hot showers and I had a lay down which helped. The feeling of being on a boat bobbing around continued for several hours though which was not pleasant. I think basically I had got myself over worried about the whole thing which just made me have a bit of a panic attack and to start to hyperventilate, I am normally ok on boats. The whale watching was cancelled this afternoon again as the whales had still not come into the area, which was just as well really as I didn’t feel like going on another boat today. I had really wanted to swim with dolphins and the reason I went back into the water was because I wanted to see one through my mask swim past or around me. Sadly, I didn’t see any through my mask, but they were in the water near me so I think I will give myself half a mark for being in the water with them nearby. Peter did very well though and thoroughly enjoyed it. Both he and Janet got some photos of the dolphins.Read more