I was all set for this to be another mundane report of the day’s activities, perhaps with a brief discussion about the merits of facial hair in ocean rowing (I understand it’s still very much a faux pas among women rowers, although not altogether unheard of). However it’s not to be.

The day’s actually been fairly positive. The wind’s making a casual nod towards the right direction, and some good progress has been made. So there I was, rowing along with my headphones on (a very dangerous experience, but more on that another day), when I spotted a wave out of the corner of my eye. Now, this wasn’t an ordinary wave: not only was it going the right way (a very rare sight these days), but it was grey, had a vertical spurt of water coming from it, and it had a dorsal fin. It was in fact a whale!

I carried on rowing for a minute, looking around for more appearances, when up came another one directly alongside me, barely 15 feet away. This gave a nice easy size marker - it was bigger than my boat - and I suddenly felt very small. Anyway, rowing was immediately suspended and I dived in to get the camera.

I now have an increased respect for wildlife cameramen. How do you know where they’re going to appear next?! Well, you can see my best efforts. One of them may look like not a lot, but it is the moment when my thoughts changed from “wow, look how amazing it is” to “if you could hold your breath for five more seconds, that’d be marvellous”, as a massive tail passed directly beneath the boat.

I don’t know how many there were, but it was at least two. Sadly, 20 minutes later I had to resign myself to returning to the oars, looking forward to the next time I get to feel fabulously insignificant.