A Dialogue with a Pod of Dolphins

A Dialogue with a Pod of Dolphins. 200 miles to Gibraltar. Our eleventh day at sea. All the storms are behind us. Today is a wonderful day: the swell is low and long, and the wind is following. We are having lunch in the cockpit. It looks as though the smell of food has brought the dolphins :). Six of them. We rushed to the foredeck and shouted to them how clever, sweet and lovely they were. The dolphins played with us at the bow, rolling almost onto their backs as if trying to look us in the eye, then diving into the depths and leaping out again. They noisily blow air from the opening on top of their heads. They are very close, and we can see the opening being sealed by a special flap before they dive underwater. The Return Once they had had their fill of playing, the dolphins swam away. It turned out they had not left for good, but had gone to fetch the whole pod. We spent about 30 minutes at the bow, hanging over the water and talking to these incredible creatures. We heard their calls, though we could not decipher them. But I think they took a liking to us. They soared, vanished and reappeared, turning their pearly bellies towards us in the water. A younger group swam a little farther off, its members leaping very high out of the water. They must have had sports lessons at their nursery. I look at them and feel so sorry for them that it brings tears to my eyes. Silently, I apologise for all the fuel oil and rubbish in the sea; aloud, I wish them long lives and call them affectionate names. Laduska happily shouts these words to the dolphins. Our daughter is certain they have come to thank her because, throughout the passage, she has conscientiously fed them carrot peelings, apple cores and assorted orange rinds. A Dialogue with a Pod of Dolphins Later, between the Canary Islands, when we encountered whales on our passage from Tenerife to La Gomera, for some reason it was this particular meeting with the dolphins that came back to us.