Temptation Sailing

I went on this trip last Thursday 4th March 2010, the weather was lovely with clear blue skies and lots of sunshine. You have to pay the remaining balance for the trip on the boat, take enough cash as if you pay by credit card they hit you with a $5 fee. You leave at 8:00am, are given a wet suit, goggles, snorkel, and a safety brief, the whole cruise lasts for 3.5 hours returning by 11:30am. By 08:30 the crew spotted the local pod of dolphins just north of the harbour. We were all very excited and got ready to enter the water, then the crew gave the order for the swimmers to enter the water which was total chaos, but good fun, as nobody really knew what they were doing. We were then told to look under the water which was very murky, in fact so murky I could only see about 1m. Even though there were dolphins swimming next to the boat I could not see them from under the water, and the only way I could see them was to lift my head out of the water. The view from the boat would have been much better. We then headed south into some clearer water, which takes about 45 mins, however the crew struggled to locate any dolphins. Eventually we found some and again entered the water. This time it was much clearer and you could see 5-6m. The dolphins in the clearer water are not as tame as the local pod and would wiz past the boat and disappear in a few seconds. You had to be lucky to be facing in the right direction after the chaos of entering the water to see one. Again the people who stayed on the boat seemed to have the best view. At 10:30 we were told the swimming was complete for that day and we would travel back to the harbour. We had been in and out the water 4 times and I had seen one dolphin for about half a second under the water. On the way back to the harbour the crew showed a slideshow of pictures from the day, which you can purchase of $20. The slide show was amazing and only reinforced my opinion that the view from the boat was much better than the view of the water. I decided not to purchase the slideshow as it did not reflect my experience of the trip. This is a good trip if you want to see wild dolphins, but if I could rewind the clock I would have stayed on the boat, got a better view and saved myself $40. (Date of experience: Mar, 2010 )