This is a guest post by Lyssa Brodsky. She and her husband, Forrest, stayed aboard Rua Hatu in April 2022.
It was an indescribably magical feeling to swim in the open ocean. More specifically, 10 miles from shore and 80 meters above the ocean floor. Though scary for some, I found it to be incredibly peaceful and I felt a oneness with the ocean that I’d never truly felt before.
We were on an overnight sail headed from Zihuatanejo to Acapulco and when the winds died down, it was an opportune time to take a dip. The water was a deep blue color and was remarkably clear. We jumped off the boat and swam in the somewhat remote waters of Mexico. I floated on my back while basking in the sun. The weather had been particularly hot for several days and I enjoyed letting the cool water flow over my body. The waves were calm and they bobbed me slowly up and down with the swell. There were small ripples on the surface of the water that glistened in the light of the afternoon sun.
“You look so relaxed,” Forrest said, looking down at me from the sailboat. I was relaxed. I was floating on the surface of the water with my eyes closed and in that moment, I couldn’t have felt more content.
On the following day, I finally saw what I’d hoped to see for weeks: dolphins swimming in the bioluminescent ocean at night.
We had seen bioluminescence in the water many nights and the magic of it never ceased to amaze me. These microscopic dinoflagellates float completely unseen in the daytime, but at night they create a spectacular light show upon any movement that occurs in the water.
The dolphins danced around the boat. They swam slowly at times and then sprang forward at such a speed that almost made them look like shooting stars. The bioluminescent light surrounded each dolphin with a faint glow at slow speeds. When a dolphin raced forward, bright lights appeared and were then followed by a trail of intense twinkling lights. They swam alongside the boat for hours and I couldn’t help but wonder if they were as fascinated with us as we were of them.
Two days later, as we sailed into Acapulco in the early morning, I was awakened by Janine calling out “dolphins!” She’d been awake for hours guiding the boat along safely. I was still sleepy and I closed my eyes again for just another minute…
Suddenly, Janine was standing at the bed. “I really hate to wake you but there are dolphins!” I opened my eyes and I jumped out of bed to make my way to the deck where I immediately saw dolphins on each side of the boat swimming alongside us. They were so close I could almost reach out and touch them. Once I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and looked more closely, I noticed to my amazement, that they were spotted dolphins. Kiwi, the dolphin loving dog, ran all around the deck trying to catch site of as many dolphins as possible. As we neared Acapulco, the dolphins left us and we sailed into the bay where we anchored for the next couple of nights.
We spent the following days paddle boarding to beaches with shady palm trees and mangroves along the shoreline. We snorkeled in the reefs with colorful fish and we went on a sunset hike on the island beside our anchorage.
The most incredible thing I experienced was on the last evening that Forrest and I were on the boat. Once it was dark, we threw off our clothes and jumped from the boat into the dark water only to be met with bursts of twinkling lights. We swam in the bioluminescent water which grew brighter with each movement we made. I swam and dove and twirled and I was completely mesmerized by the beauty surrounding me. Light appeared out of the darkness and then slowly faded again until the next movement occurred. I put on my snorkel mask so I could better see the bioluminescence while I was underwater and I could hardly believe what I was experiencing: the delight of swimming in what appeared to be a magnificent galaxy of shimmering lights in the water around me. It was pure joy.
Our sailing trip is over now and Forrest and I have both continued on to our next adventures. We all parted ways in Acapulco but we feel the gratitude that our lives have been enriched from deepened friendships with Nic and Janine. We will savor our memories of eating ridiculous amounts of fruit. We will fondly remember our time spent with the adorable pets onboard Rua Hatu. We most certainly will never forget our bioluminescent experiences and we look forward to the next time we get to share time and space with Nic and Janine again.
Until next time, Rua Hatu!