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after catching a few fish, I was returning to land. The tide had risen,
and ugly, jumbled breakers were smashing on the seawall. Two hun-
dred yards from the shore, I hesitated. Even from where I sat I could
see that the waves were stained brown by the shingle they flung up. I
could hear them crack and sough against the wall. Fear ran over my
skin like cold water. I scanned the shore for a better way in, but saw
nothing.
Behind me I heard a monstrous hiss: a freak wave was about to
break over my head. I ducked and braced the paddle against the water.
Nothing happened. I turned round. The rollers came in steadily: high,
white-capped, but, at this distance from the shore, not yet threatening.
Astonished, I swivelled round, desperately seeking an explanation. It
rose from the water beside the boat: a hooked grey fin, scarred and
pitted, whose tip skimmed just under the shaft of my paddle. I knew
what it was, but the shock of it enhanced my rising fear and I nearly
panicked. I glanced this way and that, almost believing that I was
under attack.
Then a remarkable thing happened. From the stern I heard a differ-
ent sound: a crash and a rush of water. I turned and a gigantic bull
dolphin soared into the air and almost over my head. As he flew past,
he fixed his eye on mine. We held each other's gaze until he walloped
back into the water. I stared at the spot, willing him to resurface, but
I did not see him again. I turned and faced the shore once more, now
without fear. Instead I felt a heart-wrenching exhilaration that lent
me, for a moment, clarity. I studied the seawall and noticed something
I had not seen before: a distant slipway taking the force of the waves.
In its lee were two or three yards of calmer water.
I cut across the waves until, fifty yards from the shore, I lined up
with their strike and pointed the prow at the quieter patch. It reap-
peared every few seconds as a breaker fell back; then it was swept
away in the next assault on the wall. Above the roar of the waves, I
could hear the pebbles rattling against the battlements like grapeshot,
as the sea sucked and sagged at the stonework. I dug the paddle in and
charged the shore. I held back for a moment as a wave rolled past me,
then flew at the gap. I jumped from the boat as it slid into the lee of
the slipway, and clambered onto the concrete wedge, just before the
kayak smashed against the seawall. The collision reduced my fishing
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