Tuesday, January 13, 2009

	Dolphins are seen through a window in the eye to eye underwater viewing pod on Captain Dave's Dolphin and Whale Safari boat off the coast of Laguna Beach on Monday. CHRISTINA HOUSE, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

DANA POINT –There's no doubt watching dolphins emerge from the water's surface is one of the most majestic experiences along our coast.

But getting to see them up close underwater – peering eye-to-eye with them as they swim with you – is a whole new experience.

When I was offered a sneak peek on Monday to check out an underwater, glass pod installed in the hull of Capt. Dave's Dolphin and Whale Safari's 50-foot catamaran in Dana Point, it was hard to visualize exactly what to expect.

The boat, Manutea, had just been put back in the water
hours earlier by a crane in Newport Beach, and even creator Dave Anderson had yet to test it out.

Installing the underwater pod – which he claims is the first in the world for a commercial charter boat – has been a dream of Anderson's for 10 years. He literally jumped up in the middle of the night, woke his wife, and told her of his vision.

"It is groundbreaking. I'm sure it will be copied all around the world," he said.

Even when they were financially prepared to start the venture, it would take a yearlong, painful process of getting Coast Guard approval to make sure the boat wouldn't sink, or the glass windows wouldn't leak. Several times, they nearly gave up.

"It's a little scary to do something like this, to cut holes in your boat," said Anderson.

As we headed out on Monday afternoon – fortunately for me on a day with pristine weather – we traveled for about an hour to search for a pod of nearly 1,000 dolphins stretching over half a mile that Anderson had spotted earlier.

There are about 400,000 common dolphins that live off our coast, and it's not unheard of to see pods up to 5,000 in one spot.

On the boat with us were a group of family and friends with their children, and hearing their cheers upon reaching the playful dolphins is a treat in itself.

It was a first-time experience for Alex Lasater, 12, who had never been on a boat, and had only seen dolphins at Sea World.

"This is awesome. It's not like the zoo, it is better watching it in the wild," he said. "They're more playful, they're just kind of gliding though the water."

When we were positioned within the pod of dolphins, I carefully walked down stairs into the hull, an area of the boat usually used for storage.

It's a small area, only able to fit two or three squatting people at a time. As I inched closer to the glass panel set on both sides of the hull, there were dolphins everywhere, so close you felt like you could pet them.

They seemed almost as curious about us staring at them, as we were of them. They cruised along the boat, surrounding us on both sides. At times, there were 10 dolphins swimming all around us, weaving in and out to get a good look at us.

On the ocean's surface, dolphins are usually seen only for split seconds as their fins emerge from the surface. From this view, you can see them swimming fast underwater for minutes at a time, their tails bobbing up and down as they kept up with the vessel.

It's not like looking down a glass-bottom boat, which frankly can be a bit dull. You're surrounded by water in the pod, and you feel like you're swimming with them as the boat speeds through the ocean. It was almost like being in an underwater aquarium, or maybe similar to the feeling scuba divers get when submerged under water – just a lot drier. The glass panels in the hull are about 6-feet long and 3-feet tall, made of bulletproof glass that is stronger than the actual boat, Anderson said.

Anderson's daughter Arielle, 6, was among the first to get a glimpse of the new underwater pod.

"It seemed like you could reach out, one inch, and touch them. They were so close and beautiful," she said. "It was like a jungle out there."

Although not installed on Monday, there will be audio coming through speakers of the dolphins. And hopefully, when whales are spotted along the coast, spectators can get a glimpse of what they look like while submerged underwater. Prices aren't going up for the new experience.

For Anderson, his vision came out better than what he imagined.

"Just seeing how badly people wanted to go down there, it's just overwhelming, it's just powerful," he said. "You're one of the pod. It's really like you're swimming right with them."

Contact the writer: lconnelly@ocregister.com or 714-445-6678

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