Captain Mark’s Dolphin Cruises Aboard the Holiday

• Boat: the Holiday
• Cruise: about 1¾ hours
• Runs: Monday to Saturday
• Infants: free

Captain Mark’s Dolphin Cruises is a family-owned company with one boat, the Holiday, which leaves from Shelter Cove Harbour & Marina. It is a large, steady, slow boat with covered seating and open rails for 360-degree views, so it suits grandparents and small children as well as anyone who worries about a bumpy ride. Every trip is narrated by the captain: the dolphins first, then the island’s history and the marsh, with the waterfront homes and yachts of Broad Creek and Calibogue Sound, the Harbour Town lighthouse and Daufuskie Island along the way.

Dolphin Cruises on the Holiday

• Dolphin watch cruise: the daytime trip, about 1¾ hours, looking for Atlantic bottlenose dolphins along with herons, pelicans and osprey.

• Dolphin watch sunset cruise: the same trip timed for sunset over the sound, so the departure time moves with the season.

• Fireworks sunset cruise: two hours on Tuesday nights from June to August, ending on the water for the HarbourFest fireworks.

Cruises run Monday to Saturday, several times a day, and the regular dolphin and sunset trips run from March through October. Tickets are sold per person, with a children’s fare for ages 3 to 12 and infants free. Other dolphin boats leave the same harbour: Dolphin Seafari is a smaller family-run boat, and Salt Marsh Sailing does private dolphin sails.