Caught Between Sunset and Moonrise
Images by Meredith Stephens
“Are you ready? I want to arrive while it’s still light,” urged Alex.
My rucksack was already packed. Alex had already put our Border Collie Haru in the car. I don’t know why it always took me such a long time to get ready. I wasn’t used to daylight saving, and because it was late May the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere was approaching. I couldn’t imagine catching the dinghy to shore in darkness.
There was nothing unusual about seeing pods of dolphins when crossing Investigator Strait, the stretch of water between southern Australia and northern Kangaroo Island. In fact, it would be unusual not to see them. Whenever we catch sight of one we shout out “dolphins” and venture onto the foredeck if it’s safe to do so.
I went outside to observe the dolphins breaching alongside and in front of the boat. More and more dolphins approached from various directions, so many that I could not count them. As the waters were calm, and it was still warm, I decided to stay on deck and get as close as I could to them.
I lay tummy-down on the trampoline at the front of the boat so I could poke my head just over the edge and get a good look at them. Dolphins breached mere metres before my eyes. I wanted them to stay.
Usually, they spend a few minutes with us and then disappear. Perhaps I could try and talk with them or sing to them. I put on the headphones Alex had given me for my birthday, and chose some of my favourite songs. I sang along to the music, crooning to the dolphins.
I am not sure if they could hear me, or if they were aware that I was trying to communicate with them, but I think they really liked The Beach Boys. They swam alongside us longer than ever before — for over an hour — then disappeared just before sunset.
Arrival at night was what I was dreading. Night sailing was bad enough, but I had no desire to get into the dinghy after nightfall. The familiar coastline of northern Kangaroo Island came into view, but the sun was setting, and by the time we arrived the coastline would be obscured.
“Can’t we stay on the boat tonight and go ashore tomorrow morning?” I asked Alex. “The dinner guests won’t mind. They won’t expect us to arrive in the dark.”
“They are expecting us. We can do it!’ countered Alex.
“There’s not much moonlight tonight,” I complained. “We had moonlight last night.”
“It’s still early. The moon hasn’t risen yet. I’m sure we can locate the mooring buoy in darkness.”
“Do you expect me to hook it in the dark?”
“You can do it.”
Alex handed me a torch.
“I can’t hold the torch and hook the mooring buoy at the same time,” I whined.
“You’ll be fine.”
I held the torch in my left hand and the mooring hook in my right. It felt like learning to play Bach on the piano as a child, having to do different things with each hand. Normally Haru likes to accompany me to the bow to hook the buoy, but I didn’t want to lose her to the sea in darkness, so I left her inside. Alex remained at the helm, maneuvering slowly towards the buoy. I shone the torch with my left hand and managed to hook the buoy on my first attempt.
I walked to the stern, where Alex was lowering the dinghy. We really were going to find the shore in the darkness. I could barely make it out. Still, I trusted Alex and often found myself doing things with him that I would otherwise consider impossible.
Haru and I were already donning our lifejackets. If I fell in I would not sink, but I might fall victim to hyperthermia. Before I knew it, Haru deftly jumped into the dinghy and calmly smiled at us. She knew the drill. I placed one leg into the centre of the dinghy, and then lowered myself onto the bench. Alex sat behind me, released the rope, and then we were off.
“Can you make out the cove?”
“No.”
I shone my torch towards the coast, but it failed to illuminate it.
“That’s a diving torch. I should have brought my high-powered LED one,” Alex told me. “I can’t see where we are going. Can you hand it to me?
I handed the torch to Alex, and we kept scouring the coast.
“Are these rocks the ones in the cove?” asked Alex.
“Not sure. It doesn’t look right. Let’s head further down to the beach.”
He headed to the beach, It was high tide, and the water nearly came up to the cliffs. At least we would not hit any rocks this time. We alighted on the beach and Haru jumped out after us. We scrambled up the trail followed by a relaxed Haru. Unlike me, she had no sense of fear when riding in a dinghy in the dark. She trusted us implicitly. I followed Alex as closely as I could so I could see the kangaroo trail, Haru trotting behind me.
Finally, the house loomed into view. Our dinner guests had arrived before us and approached us. We weren’t exactly dressed for dinner, wearing shorts so that we would not have to get our trousers wet as we alighted the dinghy, aqua socks, and our life jackets.
Was it all a dream? Had I really caught a dinghy in the dark, dodged rocky outcrops, dog in tow, and climbed up the trail in complete darkness? This was one of many of my adventures with Alex that now seems almost normal.
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Meredith Stephens
Meredith Stephens is an applied linguist from South Australia. Her work has appeared in Agape Review, Blue Mountain Review, All Your Stories, The Font- A Literary Journal for Language Teachers, The Muse, and Coin-Operated Press. In 2022, with Yudai Aoki, she won the Michelle Steele Best of JALT Award for Extensive Reading. In June 2024, her stories were selected as the Editor's Choice for All Your Stories.
