Dive time: 00:47:00
Max depth: 18.3 metres
Temperature: 27 C
Visibility: 15 metres
Buddy: Jason, Alex
Surface interval 02:46:00
Mix: EAN 25 (MOD 44.1 metres – 1.4ppO2)

As Ahmed was doing the dive brief for the dive, someone yelled out “DOLPHINS!” and we all scrambled to the sides of the boat to look at the dolphins swimming around. What was going to be our dive plan was abandoned when we realised that the dolphins were sticking around.

I was buddying with Jason and Alex (brothers from Bournemouth) for the dive, and we were part of the second group to leave on the Zodiacs. We were wanting the rest of the group to hurry just in case the dolphins left, and it was really frustrating waiting for these blokes to kit up. Thankfully, by the time the Zodiacs powered away from the boat, the dolphins were still around, and we backward rolled straight next to the pod. The other group had already spent a good 10 minutes playing around with them.

The thirty-odd dolphins were checking us out more than the other way around, and they seemed very curious. I saw that three dolphins had broken away from the main pod and were dancing around with Iben, a Danish lady from our boat, so I swam over towards her. Then the three dolphins came to check me out!!

I danced around with them, spinning around and doing somersaults in the water as they swam down and circled me a few times, only about a metre away from me! I felt like I could have reached out my hand and touched them! They were beautiful, and I was eye to eye with these three beautiful creatures. What an amazing experience!!

The pod then swam off languidly, and we continued with our dive, but really, the scenery was pretty anti-climactic after the dolphin encounter, although we did see a shoal of around twenty schooling bannerfish.

Jason, Alex and I decided that we already had an amazing enough experience with the dolphins and soon decided to head back to the boat. As we were swimming back, we heard a whistling noise and looked around us to figure out where it was coming from. Behind us, the pod of dolphins did another swim by, not so close this time, but close enough for us to see the pod diving and jumping out of the water as they passed by.

A dive of a lifetime – truly spectacular and memorable!