East River Dolphin

On Sunday I read about a wayward dolphin swimming in New York's East River. With a naive hope that I would catch a view and possibly meet this misguided animal, I headed through the village of Greenpoint to the bank of the East River. My first stop was the recently opened WNYC Transistor Park. Unfortunately the pier was fenced off and with unwavering anticipation I continued on to the ferry dock at the end of India Street. I spent about half of the hour watching boats pass and looking for signs of movement in the water. From memory I could match buildings in the distance to images pictured in the news article and remained hopeful. Birds gathered off in the distance and I thought maybe dolphins fed on the same things the birds looked for. Several years ago I was on a boat in Hawaii and the guide explained that dolphins are curious by nature and often play in the wake of tour boats. As a ferry pulled up to unload passengers, I carefully watched the trailing water. I imagined a dolphin splashing and playing in the turbulence but the wake was a white cloud of emptiness. With nothing to show for my endeavor I decided to leave. As I retreated, I looked back several times to see if something would appear in the gray water.