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Whale
In Scotland last May I saw a whale.
Not the first whale I've seen, but the first I found for myself rather than being shown.
We took a boat out from Mallaig to the island of Eigg. Two thirds of the way there the skipper pulled round for us to take a closer look at a raft of shearwaters floating offshore. I looked towards Eigg and saw it, just for a few seconds, clear as anything - the long low arch of its back above the water, the sharp triangle of its dorsal fin sliding over and down into the waves. The captain saw it too, and shouted out, but it had gone. No one else saw it.
But I did! A Minke whale. To see such a thing is so special. And I was high for days.
Not the first whale I've seen, but the first I found for myself rather than being shown.
We took a boat out from Mallaig to the island of Eigg. Two thirds of the way there the skipper pulled round for us to take a closer look at a raft of shearwaters floating offshore. I looked towards Eigg and saw it, just for a few seconds, clear as anything - the long low arch of its back above the water, the sharp triangle of its dorsal fin sliding over and down into the waves. The captain saw it too, and shouted out, but it had gone. No one else saw it.
But I did! A Minke whale. To see such a thing is so special. And I was high for days.
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And it was a Minke! I've never seen a Minke!!! I've only seen the California Greys and Humpbacks. Shearwaters! Wheee! Love those things. First one I ever saw, I said "Hey! What's that thing!?! It's just gliding low, shearing across the water...oh. That's why they call them shearwaters!!!"
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I've seen fin whales off Cape Cod, plus porpoises in Scilly and Scotland, and once a huge basking shark, in Scilly again. Always a special thing, Leviathan :-)