A few years back I was the master/manager of a small paddlewheel passenger boat called the Island Lady. We ran day cruises on the weekend and sunset cruises every weekend evening out of the Stono River and into Charleston Harbor. When we first started these excursions it was a regular event to announce the courtship of dolphins over the PA system and have everyone on board, it seemed, rush frantically forward for a view of the cavorting “flippers” as they swam along in the bow wake, surfing just a few feet from the front rail.
Dolphin are coy, clever creatures, and just as quickly as they appeared, they would…

