I was looking through some old photographs, and found this image from nearly ten years ago.  I was suddenly back in the boat…..

An impossible-to-describe life experience:  a completely still sea, enclosed by mist;  the haunting song of seals echoing across the surface from the rocks of the Smalls lighthouse;  the tiny boat drifts, with engine cut, though an unending raft of shearwaters, each one almost close enough to touch.  The only sound apart from the seals is the occasional muted splash as a shearwater lifts off from the surface.

Spellbound for  few moments, I was as loathe to leave this memory as I had been to head back to the shore.   Treasured memories stay with us forever.