Porpoise Tales

SOUTH CAROLINA LOWCOUNTRY. The porpoise came up out of the May River, due north of Bull Island, where Barataria Creek dumps into the main channel.

I was buzzing down-tide in a big skiff, one-fifty Yamaha, twenty-two knots. A hundred yards out, the porpoise rose half out of the water, cocked his head, and gave me that grin and that eye.

If you know porpoises, you’ll know what I mean.

I swung the wheel to port. He slipped beneath the water and rose again before me, to starboard this time, and he did the same to port, just twenty yards away. I throttled down,