The Dolphin Nursery

We anchored out Saturday night in Durham Creek--an out-of-the-way peaceful spot--where we grilled dinner while watching the spectacular light-show put on by sheet/heat lightning.  Sunday morning, we cooked our usual leisurely farm-house breakfast, then were sailing home along the Pamlico River when we saw dolphins.  No, I mean, we saw DOLPHINS!  We've seen 2-3 at some distance and been thrilled; one time we even saw a half dozen or so and were totally mesmerized.  This time, we were sailing along and suddenly, there were the tell-tale fins (one fin = dolphin, two = shark, so they say).  "Holy cats," I said, "there must be 10 or more!"  A few even ventured close to the boat, doing their little arc out of the water (showing their snouts, then backs, to disappear leaving a little bubbly ripple).

Then we sailed past them. . .and saw even more!  No, they weren't moving along with us: we were sailing THROUGH a field of dolphins.  It was a whole nursery (they move into more brackish waters to birth/raise their young).  We were at least 100 yards off-shore and could see fins surfacing and receding--maybe 10-20 feet apart--from our boat all the way to the shore.  Some came up to the boat, perhaps because by this time I was a little loony and ecstatic and crooning, calling to them, "Let us see you, you beauties, come by our boat, we LIKE you. . ."  We saw several double-fins too, a small + large fin right next to each other: they'd breach, curve above the water then submerge, and we could see a big + small dolphin together in perfect synchronicity, like the parent saying, "Follow along with me, this is how it's done properly."  It was just breath-taking.  We were both reduced to grunting "Uh-uh-UH!" and grabbing each other's arms and pointing, like "Look, look, there's another right THERE!"  This went on for about two miles.  In a sailboat, in light wind, that means about 30-45 minutes. . .Our very most conservative estimate is 50-60 dolphins--but I'd wager it was really more like 70-100.

We even passed several fishing and recreational power boats--which would normally have been zooming right through--strangely still and dead in the water, no doubt also watching in awe.  For a while, I was crying and grinning at the same time. . .Definitely one of the most absorbing, amazing views of nature I've ever experienced.