Dolphin! Just say the "d word" and we all look. Can't help but love those playful sea creatures that swim along with the boat. These dolphin came to swim in Valkyrie's bow wake off and on all day long as we were traveling along the coast of the Carolinas. We went out the St. Mary's Inlet on the Georgia/Florida line. It took just over two full days to get to Cape Lookout, NC. This video was shot along the way. We were several miles offshore and couldn't see land. The water was clear and calm. If you look closely, you can see the reflection of the bow in the water. If you listen closely, esp. at the beginning, you can hear the dolphins clicking. I added music to this one (at the request of a good friend :-)). Hope you enjoy the video as much as we enjoyed the dolphin!!!
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"No aquarium, no tank in a marine land, however spacious it may be, can begin to duplicate the conditions of the sea." While we were offshore on the way from Fernandino Beach, Florida to Cape Lookout, North Carolina, the dolphin came to play in our bow wake MANY times. Here are a few pictures to tease you. You KNOW I shot lots of video!!! It's a comin' soon!
Those who know us well, know that we have worn the paint off our fishing lures trolling. I am quite good at putting the lures on the pole and taking them off. I watch the line. I call to the fish. I do the fish dance. But we have yet to have any luck trolling!!! We have been totally skunked! Valkyrie 0; Fish 100. When Dad came aboard, I had hopes that he would catch something. My Dad has fished his whole life! If anyone could catch a fish, it would be my Dad. Of course with trolling, you set the line and then just drive. Day One = No fish. Dad joked with Don that the Captain was supposed to know where the fish are and drive over them. I was about to give up hope, when bam, we got a hit. Not that the fish stayed on the line, but it was a definite bite. This was a first!!! We all got excited. As we were heading around the top of Long Island, it finally happened! We got another bite. Dad kept the fish on the line and brought him in!!! I knew Dad would catch a fish!!! While waiting for family to arrive for the weekend, we had a few days to kill between Charleston and Beaufort. I pulled up Active Captain and began clicking on all the various anchorages and found this: Famed 'Monkey Island' - anchor out and watch the monkeys come to the beach in the evening to play. Decent anchorage for going out to sea next morning. Quiet and peaceful. Tidal range of 3 feet. Some wind protection from the east. No wakes or parties. Being skeptical, I thought, yeah right, must be a little sarcasm because Monkeys don't live in South Carolina. They must be joking. This is probably a place where small power boaters pull on shore to party and the monkeys are really drunken boaters. So I googled it. We all know Google knows everything! Sure enough it was true! Real monkeys do live on this island! They were brought here in 1979 to research on the oral polio vaccine. Since then they have grown into a breeding colony of 4,000 Rhesus monkeys with 750 babies born each year. That was good enough for me. I was ready to go! Within 5 minutes of dropping the anchor, we saw monkeys playing on the beach while watching dolphin swim by the boat. The next morning deer came down for a stroll along the beach, while eagles hung out in their nest. Blue jays and pelicans flew past. We felt like we were watching Wild Kingdom Live! It was amazing. Check out these pictures! And to think this wasn't even on my bucket list! Thank you Active Captain!!!
Most of the time when we see dolphin, we are standing on the bow. Usually the sound of the waves going by are the only sounds we hear. As I was shooting video with my camera, I caught their sound. The video wasn't worth sharing. But the sound was. Listen to their clicks.
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