Maddy and Grace - Ready to see some dolphins!
Seeing that we are generally landlocked here in Nebraska, one day in Hilton Head we decided to spend a few hours going on a dolphin-watching cruise! Doesn't that sound like fun!! It was a beautiful day on HHI and off we went to the Oyster Factory to meet up with one of Capt Jim's workers, Capt Clint. We got in a cool little speedboat. Just before I was about to ask for a life jacket, Capt Clint snickered that only one time had an adult asked for a life jacket! Kids had to wear them, of course. Almost right away, we saw dolphins -- a mother and her calf! So cute and it seemed like they were tagging along right with us. Of course, it was difficult to get a photo, but see if you can find the little dolphin fin. Before we got on the boat, the kids thought it was a shark fin -- ha ha -- no sharks there! At least I don't think there were any sharks around!
Anyway, as we boated along with Capt Clint giving us the history of the area, we saw a buoy-thingy and oops -- we ran it over!! Not good!!! It was a crab-catching pot and guess what happened?? The crab net with real live crabs in it got tangled up in the boat's propeller! Oh my -- what a disaster! We were only about 30 minutes into our 2 hour cruise at the time. In an effort to get the net off the propeller, Capt Clint cut his hand in a couple places and was bleeding all over. Then, our boat started drifting toward a huge barge where they do fireworks at night. Somehow, with the tide and all, we ran into the barge and some rope holding down the barge came barreling across the front of the boat where Grace (my niece) and I were sitting. We ducked out of the way but both got pelted with nasty river gunk from the rope, ruining our shirts. Surprise surprise, the boat was a mess too. Finally, he got the boat propeller untangled and headed back to dock. Capt Clint graciously offered to reschedule our cruise, but after that little adventure, we decided that we'd probably seen enough dolphins! Now, do you understand why I don't like boats! :) We couldn't be mad though -- especially since Capt Clint was SO embarrassed by the whole episode and, after all, we did see some dolphins!
