CRUISE BOAT ......Back to gallery

In the summer holidays, families descend on the town and take dolphin spotting rides on the river cruise boats. These magnificent acrobats cavort in the vessel’s bow waves. The ladies stretch over the rails to coo and ooh at the dolphin’s antics as the crew admire the bloomers on the foredeck.

One river boat skipper, Captain Rod, was renowned for his cheery disposition and aptitude for not letting the opportunity of making a buck slip through his fingers. His childhood on a farm had left him with two distinguishing habits; a readiness to jaw with the customers til the cows come home and his constant chewing on anything resembling a straw at the side of his mouth.

On a particular day he had substituted his chew stick for a silvery pen top and was chugging up the river when a pack of dolphins cut the surface and surrounded the boat in a blaze of silver and foam. Of course the shout went out “dolphin ho!”, and the customers were hanging out wherever they could; some looking skyward, some looking for cameras and some looking in the right place. It was just then that he felt a tap on his shoulder.
Turning around his eyes met those of a thin lady, who touching her nose knowingly and whispered, ”I know how you did that, that’s an ultrasonic dolphins whistle you’re sucking on, isn’t it?”

Rod, removed the pen top from his mouth and studied it momentarily.
“Marty”, he shouted out to the crew, “Bring up the new consignment of dolphin whistles, the blue ones that are a combo biro”; and replying to the thin lady he confided, “the silver ones are sold out so we’ve only got the cheap blue ones left. But if you don’t tell the others, I can let you have mine for $20”.
Story based on yarns along the wharf courtesy of Captain Rod.