This bottlenose dolphin is hands down the longest single marine wildlife encounter I have ever had. This curious little guy IMMEDIATELY showed interest as we pulled our sailboat into a protected cut for an overnight stop. As soon as I jumped in the water he showed signs of excitement, twirling around and swimming off quickly, just to circle back around again and again.

About 30 minutes in to this encounter, which lasted over an hour and a half, his behavior suddenly changed. He stopped, looked right at me, and posed. Over and over again he seemingly posed for the camera, sitting perfectly still in the water calm just staring at me. It was one of the most incredible experiences I have had with an animal in the wild, in or out of the water. Like all good things, it had to come to an end eventually, and it did all too soon. After just a couple short minutes he was back to his playful self, pulling up bits of seaweed and passing them from nose, to fin, to tail. Before long he left again, and didn't circle back... but I couldn't get out of the water, I had to wait, just to see if he would come back one more time.