Meerkats and Baby Dolphins

May 26, 2011

Cooling our heels here in Fernandina Beach as a good spot to celebrate the real reason for Memorial Day, we appear to be of like mind with several boats. This inlet is a good place to enter to exit the AICW so there are boats going everywhere. Not only that, St. Marys, a small Georgia town also has excellent facilities for cruising boats. Then there are the activities of the Kings Bay Naval Station and this makes for good people watching.
The tidal flow here is not the highest we have seen but it definitely brings much water past this harbor. Yesterday at slack tide, the water was smooth and fairly clear for the area. There were several dolphin messing about just in front of the long dock. We watched a very young one (perhaps even a newborn) that was practicing breathing. We guess that is what it was doing since it was spastic in the process. Mom and other relatives were keeping a close eye on the little one as it would stay on the surface for several seconds at a time. Way cool little one that would swim nearby and look at the human observers. We have never seen such behavior.
We got back to the boat about sunset having had dinner ashore. I noticed a sight as we climbed aboard. There were several couples on the dock who were facing the setting sun. They were absolutely motionless leaving the impression they were in a trance. It was easy to see how that might have been, given the beauty of the last few seconds of direct sunlight. They reminded me of Meerkats all peering at something “out there”. Ten seconds after the fire ball fell below the horizon, they were gone. Perhaps they were hoping to see the green flash.