A mother, calf and escourt were hanging in the same area and coming up for air every 5 to 10

minutes. I positioned my self up wind of them and also with the sun on my port side and them, likely

to starbord. This allowed me a reasonable view below the surface on the starbord side. Finally, down

deep and off to starbord, I could make out the bright white of some pectoral fins. After a minute or

so, I could see both the mother and escort down deep and not moving. From further away but closer

to the surface, the calf suddenly appeared. He swam at me and then under the surfski to the port

side. In the image below, you can make out the calf on his way towards me.

The calf came up and surfaced about 20' to my port side. He hung on the surface and brought his

head out of the water a couple times to check me out. He swam one way and then the other.

He then started swimingback to me! I sensed and then saw the mother coming up quickly underneath

me to head the calf off. I wasn't certain whether she was going to surface under me or in front of the

bow. As it turned out, she caused the calf to veer off and she came up just in front of me.

A close up of the calf above is shown below:

As the mother and calf headed off, the escort came into the picture and a little late, he blew bubbles;

his way of "shouting" and showing his importance, no doubt.... I took these images by holding the

camera over the side and under water. I was able to see the calf up close above the water and in the

one image, you can see that his head was above when it was taken. The bow of the wave ski can also

be seen in a couple images. This was a wonderful encounter and there's no telling what "junior"

would have done without mom's intervention.