Yesterday morning, as I got dressed to go put the boat in the water and bring it home, I decided to put on a $2 pair of earrings that were dolphins. Thinking that the dolphin spirit of protection and harmony would be a good thing to encourage as we went on a little journey in a boat we’d never driven, in waters neither of us was familiar with. Even if it was only a couple miles.

The boatyard, atypical of all the other marine service we’ve experienced, did what they said they would do, when they said they’d do it, for the price they said they’d do it for. And so the boat got splashed on time.

We came out of Salt Creek, in St. Petersburg, and followed the well-marked channel out into Tampa Bay. Like I said, the run up to the municipal marina was a short one, only a couple of miles. We were checking out the sights, looking for the next buoy at close to the end of the channel out of the creek, and Dan said, “Look, the dolphins have come to say hi.” I quickly looked where he’d seen them, but I could only see the ring of ripples where they’d dived back into the water.

I continued to watch, knowing they like to play, and I wasn’t disappointed. Less than a minute later, a pod of three dolphins came up on the starboard (right for you non-nautical types, lol) side of the boat. They were swimming almost touching each other and it seemed one of them at least was a juvenile, not nearly as big as the other two. When they came up they pointed right at us, and then dove under the boat.

How cool is that?! That my spirit animal came out to greet us as we began our new adventure? What a great sign!!

We made it up to the municipal marina/boat ramp uneventfully, even though we went a little too far and drove into the wrong basin at first. We pulled into the ramp, tied the boat at the dock, and Dan backed the trailer down the ramp. Now began the most nerve-wracking part. We had to get the boat centered to drive the it onto the trailer at least partially. As we stood on the dock, pondering how best to do this, 3 younger guys came in on the ramp next to us, in a fishing boat. After talking for a few minutes, they found out we were trailer virgins, and offered their assistance. Which turned out, in my mind, to be the universe working in our behalf, because our batteries went dead as they were helping us, and they really did the work of getting the boat on the trailer, and helped us learn some of the methodology.

In the end, even though we now have an issue with the batteries, the day was a success. The boat is now adorning my front lawn again, and we have as much time as we need to finish up the things that need doing before we launch her and put her in her slip.

Dolphin medicine. Felt pretty protected by those guys showing up when they did. And even though there was stress, the work with the fishermen was harmonious, and, as I told Dan on the way home, it was stressful but we didn’t start playing the blame game on each other about anything. You know, that game where is something goes wrong it has to be someone’s fault, even if there’s no one to blame. It’s such a relief to be able to work through things together.

Did I mention that it was a beautiful, hot, sunny day?  That the bluer than blue sea was calm, and the visibility was endless?  Awesome day. Looking forward to the rest of my life.

As ever, love and light to all.