Anchor Moment

Fleeting…

…Moment

…Sometimes, it is the briefest moments that have the most-lasting thump! I can still close my eyes today and relive that moment; the moment before which there is a before and after which there is an after.

What was I doing in the Pacific; you say? So far!; you say? Well, that really depends on where you’re coming from; but yeah, that’s why I was in the Pacific, because it was so far. I didn’t go there to have a moment and yet, that day had been full of moments, thrilling moments: penguins, cormorants, pelicans, sea lions, elephant seals… I doubted I could stomach any more moments. And yet, it wasn’t enough, we were greedy, we wanted more, more … and there was more: dolphins were said to roam these waters. So we went looking for them.

We sailed and sailed, but no dolphin. So we looked harder, and harder, and no dolphin. So we looked even harder and… no dolphin. No dolphin, no dolphin, no dolphin! A shout. One of us ran to the front of the boat, stood there upright, breaking the waves with his own body. He’d seen something, maybe something that wasn’t even there. We followed his lead anyway. And then, I heard it, a clamour of astonishment rose from my companions, I followed their fingers, and there it was.

A gigantic tail. A colossal tail. A brobdingnagian tail.
With unrivalled majesty it emerged from the waters and rose to the skies before plunging back into the abyss, leaving nothing behind but a froth of reverie in our eyes.

This was no dolphin tail; it had to be something else, bigger. Our boat sped up as we started chasing the chimera. A geyser of water and air punctured the waves.

A Blowhole. Some Blue skin. A Bump, a hump. Barnacles. A Whale!

The moment was there and I knew it. Like Ahab, we’d been chasing the whale, and like him, I reached for my weapon, my harpoon; my camera. – Bang – The boat pitched violently. I was nearly knocked off my feet. Not now! The whale was surging through the waters from under our ship, threatening to capsize it and turn it into a wreck. I grabbed my camera mid-air, ran to the front of the boat. There was the beast. I could touch it, smell it, look inside its blowhole. It was now! NOW! – Click – Yes, I had it! My picture was taken! The ship could just as well capsize now; I’d caught it. IT!

Some will say I just saw some whale that day, but no, it wasn’t just that; I saw a bloody whale that day! That moment, oh that moment, it’s over now, gone, dead… and yet, somehow, it couldn’t be more alive.