The "Crummy Fantaseas Flipper" Story

It was an ordinary day. Carol and I were on our way from St. Martin to Anguilla by ferryboat for the day. We signed up for tour which included the ferryboat ride, an island tour, lunch at Gwen's Raggae Beach bar, a trip to Shoal Beach, snorkeling on a deserted beach and a swim with the dolphins. Carol had wanted to swim with dolphins for many years now, and we were finally going to get our chance. We had made arrangements a few years earlier to swim with dolphins in Tortola, which is located in the British Virgin Islands, but at the last minute they closed the program due to poor sanitation conditions and handling of the dolphins. Now's our chance. We were up at 6:45 AM for breakfast at the resort then off to the capital of French St. Martin, Marigot, to meet our tour and for our ferry ride. We boarded the ferry and after arriving at Anguilla and going through customs, we toured the island and headed to Dolphin Fantaseas. We put our suits on and were given life vests and then we entered the water. We were in an enclosed area so the dolphins couldn't escape. The dolphins naturally had names which were Papa Al, Mama Ayla and Baby Coby. We kinda expected to have them tow us around with their top fin and go under us and lift us up out of the water, but no, we got to touch them as they swam next to us, feed them and have our photo taken with them. Big whoop!! And what made it even worse was it rained the entire 45 minutes we were in the water. We did get a neat pix out of it though. At least the lunch, snorkeling and tanning were great. We got to see Shoal Bay Beach which is rated by many magazines as the best beach in the world! The beach certainly didn't disappoint us as did the dolphin experience. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - Beach pix is from Shoal Bay Beach, considered to be #1 in the world by many.