Duff manned the helm, wearing a black wet suit pulled down to his waist and the ever present woolen driving cap pulled low against the wind. He kept one eye on the sonar depthfinder, and the other on the water, watching for familiar landmarks. After a short trip, he backed off the throttle and signaled Pepé to drop anchor.

Dolly’s Peak, a reef pinnacle rising steeply from the seabed sixteen hundred feet below, belonged to the Sierra de Omoa mountain chain, an underwater range rivaling the Rockies in grandeur and elevation. But unlike the terrestrial mountain range, its beauty lay hidden under billions of tons of water.

The activity picked up as the dive neared. Dan wiped anti-fog solution over the lens of his mask and watched Jenifer adjust her color coordinated fins, mask, and snorkel. Always on guard for the fashion police, he noted. She had chosen to forego her dive suit. The tropical waters were warm enough without it. Her bikini highlighted her petite figure.

Iris and Ben had unpacked a myriad of underwater lights, cameras, and camcorders from their dive bag: enough equipment to start their own movie studio. It amazed Dan that the Silversteins could swim at all with such a formidable inventory of equipment. He imagined them sinking to the bottom in a tangled web of cords and straps.

Duff waited for everyone to settle down. "This is a very special dive today, one of my favorites. We’ll swim in a group, counterclockwise around the peak. The coral and sea life will change quite a bit as you travel up and down the sides, so watch carefully. You’ll see all types of reef creatures. Corals, anemones, sponges, reef fishes, rays, maybe a turtle or two, a barracuda or an occasional shark. It’s easy to get distracted by the view. Make sure you stay with your dive buddy at all times. Head back to the boat when your air pressure drops to 700 psi. We keep a tag line under the boat, at fifteen feet for a three minute safety stop. We don’t want anyone coming down with the bends."

Jenifer raised her hand. "What was that about sharks?"

Duff smiled. "Don’t worry, love. Most are nurse sharks, quite safe. The barracudas are more of a threat. They like shiny things, so no jewelry, and keep your fingers to yourself."

"Come on Duff, tell’em about the dolphins," Iris said.

"Ah yes, the dolphins. If we have a bit of Irish luck, we may see a friendly pod. They enjoy the company of humans. If they show, you must follow dolphin etiquette. Number one, hands off. They’ll come in very close. Close enough to touch, but don’t. Second, these are wild animals. Treat them with respect, the males especially. They may get a bit amorous with the lasses. Just relax and don’t panic, no one has ever been hurt by these beautiful creatures. Watch for one dolphin in particular. He has rust colored skin, a line of white spots along his back and a propeller scar on the top of his head. That’s Adolpho, our local Don Juan, and he loves humans, women especially."

The chance of a dolphin encounter intensified everyone’s excitement, and within minutes, divers were slipping into the water.

"Let’s go!" Jenifer tugged at his arm. "They’re all leaving us."

Dan followed her to the edge and jumped. Bubbles churned around him, tickling his skin. The water was sparkling, and he could already see the outline of the seamount clearly over two hundred feet away. A feeling of total freedom and weightlessness overcame him.

Jenifer was already kicking hard twenty feet ahead, following a school of yellowtails toward the coral. He pursued with long, powerful strokes, and soon he was alongside her, signaling for a check of her equipment. She signaled back with an okay sign.

The seamount was expansive, but its narrow point disguised its true size. The top forty feet of the apex was encrusted with a fluorescent canopy of anemones and corals, like a psychedelic snow-covered mountain. Swimming closer, he could see an explosion of life filling every nook and cranny: a rainbow of red gorgonian corals, purple tube sponges, yellow and brown staghorn corals, black crinoid coral.

A forest of azure vase sponges grew along the side of the pinnacle. He exhaled to lower his buoyancy and slipped down to investigate. It was mating season, and large white clouds of sperm spewed from their tops like smoke from a furnace. The cloud seemed to coalesce like smog, drifting across the reef with the currents, fertilizing the female sponges along the way.

Jenifer had stopped at a ledge dominated by car-sized globes of brain coral. A school of sparkling silversides darted by, each fish turning and twisting in perfect unison. Beyond them, Dan caught a flash of yellow and green. It was a stoplight parrotfish, with its distinctive blue-green stripes and parrot-like lip markings. It hovered under an outcropping of fan coral, scraping algae from the surface for an afternoon meal.

Jenifer swam up for a closer look, but as Dan backed away to give her a better view, he caught a quick movement from the right edge of his mask. A mass of metal, bubbles, and straps brushed by him and surged toward the parrotfish. Iris Silverstein was so intent on the view inside her Nikonos camera that she barely noticed anything else. The parrotfish, frightened by the sudden movement, darted into the shadows of the reef, but not before Iris managed to click a photograph. Jenifer gurgled in frustration, shook her head, and continued around the seamount.

The diving party had spread out across the pinnacle, with each pair of diving buddies exploring a different area of the reef. Dan followed Jenifer’s lead, skimming weightlessly three feet above the coral. Then he saw them! In the blue distance, they appeared first as blurry shapes, sharpening until he could see six spotted dolphins, gliding gracefully in formation. A little over five feet in length, they carried a distinctive pattern of spots along their flanks. The largest dolphin, over seven feet long, had to be Adolpho, sleek and elegant, with deep, rust-colored skin and a wash of multi-colored spots.

At a distance of fifty yards, each dolphin peeled off in a different direction, circling, zipping in and out in obvious glee, as if greeting long lost relatives. All except Adolpho. He headed straight for Duff, stopped abruptly and hovered just inches from his face.

Duff waved his arms and clucked through his regulator. Adolpho answered back, bobbing his head and chattering with the familiar dolphin squeaks. Duff suddenly twirled his arm with a flourish and Adolpho shot to the surface in a burst of energy, leaping out of the sea for a split second, then crashing back into the water in a swirl of bubbles.

The reef had become a madhouse of activity with dolphins swimming within the group, divers twisting and turning awkwardly to keep them in view, and Iris churning and contorting to try and film the cetacean acrobatics. After each foray into the divers, the dolphins regrouped. They would swim together for a while, caressing each other with their pectoral fins.

Suddenly, Dan heard—no, felt—a series of chirplike clicks from behind. Before he could turn around, Adolpho circled, checking him out, brushing against him cautiously. He stared into the dark dolphin eyes—eyes that stared back with mutual curiosity—and a rush of emotion overwhelmed him. He felt a kinship between himself and this intelligent creature. He reached out to touch, but the dolphin reacted quickly. In an instant, he was gone. Dan realized his faux pas and cursed himself, but Adolpho returned a few minutes later, as if to say, "Okay, you’ve learned your lesson."

Jenifer had been watching the interplay and started to swim toward the two of them. Adolpho reacted and circled her several times, interrogating her with a litany of chirps, clucks, squeaks and flutters. Jenifer let out a few delighted squeaks of her own, sending a cloud of bubbles out the sides of her regulator. This seemed to excite Adolpho even more and he spiraled in closer. He relaxed for a moment, drifting motionless, then with effortless grace, he swam up the front of Jenifer’s body, tucked his nostrum delicately under the strap of her bikini top, and—with one quick jerk—popped it off. Jenifer clutched her hands to her chest a second too late. Adolpho was heading toward the other dolphins, with the bright red bikini top dangling from the side of his mouth.

When he reached the other members of the pod, Adolpho dropped the top near one of the sorrel colored dolphins, a female. She picked it up with her pectoral fin and swam toward one of the gray males, handing it off like a baton. This continued for several minutes, until one gray approached Duff. He dropped the top in front of him, as if Duff had become an honorary participant in the game. Duff grabbed it, kicked several times dolphin style and relayed the top back to Adolpho. The game continued for several more minutes.

Meanwhile, Jenifer had pulled up the sides of her buoyancy compensator and cinched it tightly. Several of the dolphins passed within arms' length of her carrying the top, in what seemed like a deliberate game of keep away. After several vain attempts at retrieval, Jenifer gave up and started back toward the boat. Dan was not eager to leave, but he felt obligated to accompany her.

Sensing that the game was over, the dolphins departed as quickly as they arrived, making a few farewell passes through the ranks of their human guests.

Returning to the Spanish Diver, the divers chattered excitedly as they climbed back onboard. The dolphin encounter had left a profound impression on everyone. Jenifer had already donned a tee shirt and was sitting near the front, her face crimson.

Iris dropped her camera gear into the rinse tank and sat beside her. "My dear, that was the most fantastic thing! Adolpho was hot on you. I caught some great video footage."

"Just my luck." She rolled her eyes. "That’s one bikini down the drain. Who do I send the bill to?"

Duff was the last one onboard, having made sure every diver had returned safely. He lifted himself onto the diving platform and held up a bikini top like a prize fish. "Hey, anybody lookin’ for this?" He said, grinning. "You realize you just participated in the dolphin ‘booby’ ritual. You and Adolpho are mated for life."

Everyone roared with laughter.