Windows 2012
Looking east from my sister's home office, Pt. Townsend Bay WA with Marrowstone Island on the right, Cascade mountains catching the sun in the distance, the ferry and some sailboats out on the water. Seriously, if this was the view from MY office I'd never get anything done. Ever.
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First sunset of 2012. I'm looking forward to having a less crowded view in the near future maybe 3K + miles from here;^)
I think they just love to beat the ship like racing but here is what others have to say:
"Well it’s a wonderful thing to see for yourself. I remember the first time I saw a dolphin swimming in a bow wave and jumping into the air, and it was fantastic. It’s the sort of thing that’s been observed way, way back in time. I think the ancient Greeks were telling us about dolphins on bow waves. They've been doing it for ages and it’s the kind of thing that we don't actually know for sure why they do it.
They certainly do get a power boost. They’re surfing, essentially, the wave that the boat produces, and if any of you surf, you know how much power you can get from just sitting on a board and racing down a wave towards the beach - that’s essentially what dolphins are doing.
There have been observations of dolphins doing this and maybe associating it with fishing vessels, so they can come along and get some fish for themselves. That’s one possibility. But then there’s also been observations of dolphins riding a boat for miles and miles and then just coming all the way straight back again after they've hitched this ride, returning to where they came from. That’s clearly not going to be any energetic benefit for them.
They might just be having fun - they are deeply intelligent creatures, we know that. So why not just have some fun and hang out, and you can hear them talking and whistling to each other as they're going.
I remember something particularly wonderful: Later on in my research career when I was doing my PhD, I had the lucky time of going to work every day, along on a boat ride across a beautiful emerald lagoon. Every morning, the same pod of spinner dolphins would join us and I could recognise the patterns on them, and they’d come along and ride our bow wave, on our way to our research site. Then they would leave us, and later come back with us on the way back.
So, I do think there’s a lot of fun involved. Occasionally, maybe they are coming to feed, but we don't necessarily know. They're definitely up to something, and it’s rather fun to be able to watch it. "
They also surf!
Love the surfer dolphins! 
