Student Writing: Dolphins Underway

Author: Danielle Woodward

Location: On Route from Fernandina

I’m both excited for Charleston and not excited. I’m glad to be heading north, but this trip is quickly drawing forward and I’m not ready to end. Last night was awesome, though. I was standing near the rail on watch, talking to Wyatt, when first one wave, than another broke alongside us. Both were very strange, for they seemed to crest from beneath the water. I was about to say that they almost looked like fins when I realized something, two somethings in fact, were rolling along under the surface. I’d gotten so used to seeing the stars or moon reflected in the waves that I didn’t believe my eyes at first. But as they came up again, I let out, much to Wyatt’s amusement, the excited squeal of “Dolphins!” I followed them up to the bow where I noticed a silvery patch under the bowsprit. At first, I believed it to be merely a glowing patch of moonlight until it broke the surface. For several minutes I looked down onto two gorgeous Atlantic spotted dolphins as they hitched a ride on our bow waves, weaving back and forth, twisting on their sides, until finally they broke off to continue their own journey. It was incredible.