We left Cape Eleuthera this morning for a sail across the very deep Exuma Sound, to Ship Channel Cay.
With a 15 knot tail wind, we sailed wing-on-wing with 6' waves chasing us. Shortly after noon the wind was up to 25 knots (that's about 50 km/h), and we were flying at over 8 knots. We sailed quietly along, enjoying the slow rollercoaster of the waves from behind, when a 1/2 mile south dolphins broke the surface. Leaping high in the air they looked at us and immediately changed direction, heading towards us. Within minutes they were surrounding the boat and surfing the bow waves.
Surfing five at a time off each bow, this pod was huge. There were at least forty dolphins, and could have been as many as sixty (it's really hard to count when they keep moving around that much). Not only did they surf the bow waves, but they stayed around. For over 20 minutes this pod stayed and played,
Here is a raw unedited video of part of the encounter. This is 9 minutes long.