October 31st,

Today we got an early start heading to Norfolk, as the reports were for 30-40 knot winds today. Mom and Dad began the day with pulling up the anchor and starting the engine… which are loud… at 7:00 in the morning.  Needless to say it woke Devon and I up.  So that was how our uneventful day started.  Now I will skip to the part where it got exciting. We were just on the edge of Norfolk, in the beginning of the afternoon, and admiring the giant tanker heading our direction.  Mom was looking in the other direction-still don’t know why, as giant tankers tend to capture your attention- when she suddenly started yelling “Dolphin!!”  Of course, when he saw the fins in the water, Devon started yelling “shark!!”  Actually, it was a group of about 10 dolphins, off our port stern. We (meaning me and Mom) rushed to get the cameras to start the impossible job of trying to take pictures of them. Dad cut the engine, in the hope that they would get close to the boat, and Devon… well, sat there.  Me and mom ran around the boat taking pictures of whenever they came up close enough-they move around fast. This continued for 10 minutes. Just as we started getting the engine back up, a dolphin jumped fully out of the water two feet from our boat. And when it’s all quiet out and suddenly a giant animal jumps out of the water toward your boat, it tends to startle you.  Then one came up by our bow, again very close, and swam as if racing us for about 5 seconds. They can swim VERY fast. This one startled me the most, as I was looking over the very bow of the boat when it came up. As we continued on our way, the dolphins gradually fell behind, and we headed into the river of the ICW.  And in case you were wondering, no, we did not crash into the tanker, it passed in front of us.