I had an idea. Sometimes water runs into my mask, blurring my vision when I look down as it spreads over the glass. I thought to sniff it up through my nose and spit it out through my snorkel.
But that absodefinitely doesn’t work. There’s just too little air inside the mask, I’m just drawing a vacuum. I can only slightly wet the inside of my nostrils. But by snorting that little bit in and out I can produce snot and this serves to seal the tiny leaks caused by my stubbles. In case you think this gross, divers have a name for this production of mucus, ‘dive snot’.
What does work is tuning my diving mask. That has to be and remain in the middle of my face to prevent water coming in. Before going in I twang the rubber strap on either side of my head and adjust it until they produce the same pitch. Now the mask won’t shift to either side.
12 dolphins visiting Inisheer (video by Craig Walters)
Dusty seems rather out of sorts these days. Last week a pod of 12 dolphins visited Inisheer. Dusty kept very close to the pier, but I also heard she was seen at the other side of the island. Since then she does come close to me, but hardly allows me to touch her. So I don’t try too hard and just join in swimming at her side as long as I can keep up with her. Because she often swims in a circle with me I take the inner track and then can keep up with her until she bends off to the other side. Some times I can manage to join her in an inner circle again, but most of the time I have become too tired and have to take a rest.
The next day she didn’t even want to be touched.
She allows herself to be briefly touched by total strangers and seems mesmerised by Laura’s yellow flippers, coming in very close. Some people see a wild animal as an ‘Omnibus Idem’, the same to everyone. But Dusty does not only behave differently with different people, but also behaves differently in personal relationships. That makes her a personality, something the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group doggedly denies.
I think she must have sensed my reluctance to cuddle her till the cows come home. But also my eagerness to swim with her. Could that be why she often approaches me from the deep, as inviting me to join her down?
Also, a few days ago, she was swimming down the pier, but took off many times ‘to powder her nose’. Several times I decided to swim away and have a go at the weed gardens to see fish. And exactly each time I turned away she swam into my field of vision. That could hardly be coincidence. It felt as if she knew before I changed my mind and managed to be there on the dot. I have always looked with wary eyes at theories of telepathic powers in dolphins. Perhaps this justifies going back to the drawing board and adjust my perspective. What else is possible?