Making Time | Dolphins and Elephants

Yesterday we arrived at 4:34 for a 4:30 bridge opening at Skidaway Narrows, Georgia. We had been in touch with the bridge operator prior to making the last bend in the Waterway. He knew we were trying to make the bridge opening at 4:30PM. Many of the bridges on the Waterway can only open at certain hours; some are on demand, this bridge, we discovered, had a very exacting operator. We were informed that his job was on the line if he opened the bridge at 4:34 instead of 4:30. This gives new mean to being on time. Most of our appointments in life can have a little flex time. While this is not always polite people do tolerate our tardiness for various reasons. I now realize that the rules of the Skidaway Bridge are like those of most employers. Late is late. Our penalty was that we had to drop anchor, in a narrow waterway, and wait. The up side was that we could drop anchor, otherwise at six miles per gallon for fuel it could have been an expensive wait. I wanted to get on the radio and suggest that if he had opened the bridge for the Ghost Ship in front of us, it would have still been open as few minutes later for us. I was only joking about Ghosts, my point being that if he had started opening it we would have soon been through it. Perhaps the people sitting in their cars for other Ghosts ships complained, loudly to his superiors.

Skidaway had a small beach with a waterside park. There was a boat ramp with one boater, a roofed over area for picnics, a few sunbathers, a fisherman, many seagulls, one sailboat at anchor in observation (us), a pair of Osprey and a dolphin. Our forty five minute wait turned into dolphin watching time.

A young girl of about 4 or 5 was swimming with her father on the little beach. She was making lots of noise, yelling cheerfully, at times screaming, others just chattering away endlessly. I first saw the Dolphin swim in front of a powerboat. He crested the water just in front of the bow. I worried he would be hit. I later saw him repeat this action and realized it must be a game. He seemed to only come up to breath and then vanish below again. I kept my cameras, both digital and 35 Millimeter SLR with zoom at hand. Actually one was around my neck and one had the strap around my wrist. Klutz that I can be, I knew the potential existed to trip and drop one of them overboard especially while dolphin “chasing”.

I tried many times to get pictures of the dolphin when he would surface. You could not really tell where this would be. There seemed to be a bit of a pattern where he would rise two or three times in a row. I sensed that he would eventually work his way over to where the girl was swimming. I have read enough about dolphins to know that he would be curious about all of the commotion she was making. There are stories of dolphins helping people in distress and playing with souls they know to be kind.

I was told that they can also sense when something is different about a person and are often attracted to that person. My daughter swam with dolphins at a facility in Florida a couple of years ago. One particular dolphin paid a lot of attention to her, talking and chattering away at her, coming in closer to her, even before she was in the water. He must have been able to tell she had only one kidney the handlers had said. She was delighted that he was so interested in visiting with her. I often wondered if it there may have been more to it than that even. My daughter, Amber, was raised with elephants and horses. She is a horse trainer ( www.rockinHhorses.com ) and has an affinity for animals that allows her to respect their wild nature and yet work with them in tandem; the result is an athletic portrait worth watching where the two-legged and four-legged creature become one in a dance. We spent eleven years interacting with and watching a young African elephant grow from 5’-4” and six years of age to over 8’ in height at the age of seventeen or so. We lived on a farm and presented educational programs at schools and other events, as well as doing commercials for companies like Amway and Trus Jois MacMillan and even a movie with Jim Carrey, When Nature Calls. I think that the dolphin may have sensed my daughters intimate relationship with animals. Growing up with an elephant for a sibling has quite an effect on your level of communication with animals.

I say sibling because elephants, not unlike dolphins, are very smart. I would describe a young elephant much as I would an eight year old child in their view of, and interaction with, the world around them. Were privileged to know such a creature intimately.

As I waited at Skidaway for the dolphin to surface again I thought about all of this. I was hoping the dolphin would sense something special and come to visit me. He did not, however he did swim within 25 feet of the young girl on the beach. Well I guess he was only 30 feet from me but it seemed special that he went over to check on her. I heard the child yell out “There’s an animal! I saw an animal!” as the dolphin dipped under the water and just as quickly the girl was back at her own swimming game. The only picture I got on my digital camera barely showed a fin. The camera’s picture taking process was too slow to capture the dolphin. I may have something better on my other camera, or I may have a frame filled with the sunlight dancing off the water. I told myself that the next time I saw dolphins I would just enjoy watching them since I could enjoy my time with them more if I was not looking through a lens. Video taping ones children is a lot like that. Life just does not look the same to the film maker as it does to the watcher.

I first noticed the Osprey flying with a fish clutched in his feet. I was not sure at first what type of bird he was. He circled a nest, with his mate sitting on it, that was built on top of a sign on the Waterway that said “Thanks”. A lot of the Waterway is a no-wake zone, they often thank you for slowing down. After feeding his family the bird flew over our boat, gliding peacefully on the air currents. I took some, what I hope to be, wonderful shots of him with my zoom lens. I could see his underbelly and the cream and tan patters formed by his feathers. I believe and Osprey is in the Hawk family but need to do some research on that.

The bridge operator, when called at roughly 5:25PM, informed us that the bridge would open exactly at 5:30. It did. It was a very pretty blue bridge set against the blue sky. The bridge operator did not appear to wave at us as we went by.

We anchored last night near Savannah in Herb’s Cove. This morning I was making a cup of tea and heard a bird close by. He sounded like he was right on deck. Sure enough, as I have heard them say in southern movies, he was on our boat. I climbed up the first four steps to the cockpit and saw him perched on our dinghy at about my eye level. A black bird, dark like a raven but smaller than a Michigan crow was looking at me. He was just a chattering away. Complaining? Tell me what for? Asking for a treat? Telling us to move our boat? Or perhaps, as the Native Americans might tell you, All That Is, The Great One, may have sent him to accent my thoughts and prayers or actions of the moment. What was the Osprey telling me earlier in the day? I wonder…

As for the dolphin, I still think God is helping him to teach me patience and observation, stillness. They seem to appear just as I am distracted by a cell phone or the book I am reading. Psalm 37:7 Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him ... Be still",

Today as we head north of Savannah our First Mate, John , noticed a dolphin swimming along side our boat. I went over the rail and could look right down on him or her. I could clearly see the air hole she breathes from and her whole body dipping in and out of the water in a game of chase with or boat. I broke my promise to myself to just enjoy watching her and went for the camera, she was so close. I did continue to watch her as the battery warmed up, though, enjoying my time so close to the dolphin. I never did get the photo. I can’t help noticing they disappear just when my camera is ready. Some people would say I need a different camera. Some Wave Walkers would say I still needed to learn the lesson. My time with the dolphins is not over yet, as we continue on our journey, I will have another opportunity. I think the lesson changes day to day, moment to moment. For now we just passed Hilton Head Island. I will go help look for more buoys, markers and shoals. A boat we just passed was aground.