Dance of the – Waves

By William Snead



Like a rifle, the dark, grey giant shot up in the air.  It appeared to dance twice, then fall back into a dark moody sea.  This stormy wave belonged to the restless North Atlantic Sea.



Standing on the fantail of the General Maurice Rose was not like standing on the corner watching all the girls go by.



To my left rear as I looked out to sea was the starboard side of the ship.  With the North Atlantic wind in the height of its tempest, I could see a huge, dark swell off the starboard side.  The Maurice Rose began, as if in a dance, to rock from side to side.



The monstrous swell rolled all the way in to us, shimmering and skating towards the side of our vessel.



It put us up, up in the air and then down in a choppy, blackened valley of sea.  Up and down we went on a roller coaster ride that was unrelenting and unforgettable.



In the near distance, the familiar call of the gulls could be heard.  But the dark, forbidding North Atlantic sky masked out any clear view of birds in the air.



The wind was sharp and I decided to leave the main deck and go down to my own compartment.



After an hour, I went back up to the main deck, and much to my surprise, the sun had come out.  I headed to the rail of the starboard side and saw five delighted dolphins swimming alongside the bow of the ship.



The sea at times was blue-green mixed with a deep azure.  And there they, the gulls, were, shining brilliantly white in the sun, calling and calling their Song of the Sea.



And as I looked to my rear, to the fantail of the ship, a blue giant rose right up as if to touch the sky.  And it danced twice then descended into a lush valley of a blue-green North Atlantic Sea.



And so I would remember the lushness of the dancing waves.  Also, I would remember how wind in those white caps would make the waves of the North Atlantic dance.  And just to take with e and keep the memory of white shining gulls endlessly calling in the splendor of a north Atlantic sun was a memory quite justified to be quite satisfied.