Dolphin Address 12
September 17th 2007
Unfathomable! Skies in shades of grey and winds flapping around my backdoors. One night makes a difference like night and day. Yesterday pathways of still water meandered in the ocean and only some fleece clouds were grazing the horizon. The underwater vizz was like I’ve never seen before, at least 10 metres. It seemed as if Noach had unloaded his Ark. I never saw so many different species of fish before.
Trigger fishes, the first razor sharp thorn standing up, behind it the dorsal fin waving and in formation as if ready to attack, changing their mind on the very last moment. (According to Rod there is a little spine at the end of the dorsal fin. When in danger the Triggerfish flees into a crevice and puts up his spine, thereby anchoring itself against predators. When you push in the little spine, de front one goes down!) A dog fish of at least a metre, in carefree elegance swaying itself over the kelp gardens. Sand eels in all formats, the larger a piece, the smaller in numbers. Beautiful orange brown fishes fleeing skittish under overhangs and wrasse with their diamond lustre. A plaice only discovered by chance, perfectly camouflaged in colour and character in the sand. Large shrimps, it could also have been small crawfish, that shockingly fast changed position. Silver fishes with partly black scales and sea bass, full bodied and over half a metre.
And in this paradisiacal garden, Dusty, as if she too was enjoying the clarity of the water. With this vizz you can see her coming from a distance and anticipate on her approach. It was Sunday and seldom have I seen so many people swimming, on body- and surf boards, in canoes and sailing boats together, one great stroke-the-dolphin frenzy. An excitement of bursts of joy hung over the water and every time she surfaced by the people you could hear where. Because I swim the fastest with my mono and WaterWing and dives the deepest, and because we have been swimming together for nearly 6 years now, she came to me a lot, and took me to depths where I seldom swim.
In her company I loose all sense of time and go with her, often side by side, to the utmost limit of my breath. Then suddenly she holds and turns curiously around me until I am surrounded by an Armada of paddlers.
She is prudence herself and limits the stroke of her fluke in my presence, like I meticulously keep from hitting her with my monofin. Sometimes I sense her shadow above me; then again I find her beak in my armpit. For how long has she been there? Should I mount a rear-view mirror on the WaterWing?
A diver who shines with his lamp in a crevice suddenly spots the dolphin right above him who curiously studies his curiosity.
As large as she is, she feels the slightest touch. If she permits me I let my hand ever so softly glide along her silky body until behind her dorsal fin. Then, along her peduncle, I finger lightly stroke her other side. This is how I put her at ease, with a personal caress.
The sunlight that, broken by the waves, is poured over her skin, changes by the angle upon her as a golden shroud of light patterns, like spider webs in the early morning sunrise. Sometimes she looks striped like a bar code, than again in sparkling scales, marbled or clad in gargling light rings. Sometimes she wears a casual golf cap. This is swimming in de luxury of visibility only ending in a faraway haze.
To address her fancy I have been taking a chain with me. A rattle suffices. When she is around I drop the chain in a way that the links tinkle down in succession and on top of each other. The latest ring tone I discovered goes with the chain at roughly the same length around my neck, and with a hand enclosing slipping down, the sound descending a scale.
I have made hundreds of photographs of her, of which 66 I have selected, each being more beautiful than the next one.
I have burned them on a CD: ‘Ultimate Dolphin’. They can be ordered by the contact form on my website for 15 euro, together with the ‘Dolphin Address’ DVD for 30 euro. To give you a taste I have placed in the ‘Foto’ department three more sun dappled photos of Dusty, view ‘Dusty water’, the upper three. Of course the photos on the ‘Ultimate Dolphin’ CD are in full pixel strength (about 7 MB). Never before I have felt this rich.
Jan Ploeg, White Strand, September 17th 2007
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