Extract from Look into the Eye

The sounds were incredible. It was just like the campaign video we’d watched the first night on board the Illuminar, but more vivid. It sounded like something out of an old dinosaur movie – an eerie, groaning, moaning sound, interspersed with high-pitched cries and warbles and growls. It was surreal, haunting and thrilling all at the same time. 

I looked up and caught Hilary’s eye. I said nothing, just raised my eyebrows, smiled and slowly shook my head in disbelief. 

She nodded, smiling. Neither of us had to say a word. It was pure magic.

Suddenly less than ten metres from the boat, a whale launched himself head-first right up out of the sea, causing the boat to sway and sending tall sprays of white, foamy water flying into the air. He jumped clean out of the ocean. His long head was covered in small white barnacles, and the fins and folds of his belly were a patchy white against his grey-blue body.

“Wow, look at him fly!” Hilary cried out. “Isn’t that something?”

But I couldn’t speak. I was transfixed. As I watched that huge whale leap for the sky, a powerful charge shot through my entire body, sending Technicolour shockwaves through my black-and-white existence. He crashed back down sideways into the water with an almighty splash. The sound of the impact broke my trance and I jumped back from the edge of the inflatable. I quickly sat up again – just in time to watch his tail, like outstretched eagle’s wings glide back down into the dark water below. 

“Over here now!” Ray called out. 

I pulled off the headphones just as a huge whale surfaced right beside us on the other side of the boat. We all moved to that side and leant over the edge – the whale was so close to the boat that we could see its double blowhole, like a pair of huge nostrils, rise up above the water. It made a loud whooshing noise and a massive spray showered over the boat, covering us in cold, smelly seawater. Hilary and Jules reacted quickly and dived to cover the equipment, Ray just wiped his lens and continued filming. 

The whale disappeared down into the water and I stood up on a seat to watch him swim, just beneath the surface, around the back of the boat to the other side. I went over to that side and leant out over the edge to watch him. I could see him approaching very clearly through the water – his long, nobbly barnacled head, his scratched dark-blue and grey skin. As I watched, he flipped over so that he swam by me, this time on his back, just inches from the surface. Like a curious, friendly puppy, he was so close that I could almost have reached out and rubbed the folds of his white belly. Then he turned around and circled back for another go, this time swimming on his side. When he was right alongside me again, he peered up at me from just below the surface of the water and I looked right into his eye as he swam past. 

“Did you see that?” I said to Ray who’d been filming the whole thing beside me. “He looked straight up at me.” 

“Yep, I got the whole thing,” Ray said, pointing the camera at me. “So what’s it like to see humpbacks up this close, Richie?” 

“It’s incredible, man! Unbelievable.” I looked back for a moment to watch the whale swim off in front of the rib, then turned back to Ray and the camera.

“I’ve seen some things in my time, but this tops it all. I just looked into the eye of that whale and it was pretty damned amazing.” I rubbed the back of my head. “It’s at times like this that it feels good just to be alive!” I laughed and turned back to face the sea.

“I’m using that,” said Ray, putting his camera down.

The whales continued to swim around by the boat for another while. We watched as they circled, surfaced, then dived again in sequence, we even got treated to a full display of acrobatic tumbles and leaps. It was like being in another world entirely. I forgot who and where I was, and just enjoyed the spectacle.