On the eve of my 50th birthday, I find myself treading water with a handful of strangers in the deep, aquamarine water off a rocky headland on one of the Whitsunday’s tropical islands. I’d raised my head to check that we were on course with our 3 km ocean swim around to the neighbouring bay where we hoped to enjoy a magical snorkelling experience. When I’d popped my head up to check our course, however, I’d heard the call of “Whale!” from one of my companions.

During our 3 days on the tallship Salway Lass, touring the Whitsundays and enjoying remote ocean swims at various islands, we’d been lucky enough to have whales and dolphins visit our boat every day and each time the call of “Whale!” went up, we would all drop everything to enjoy the sight. It’s one of those magical experiences that never gets old – even the ship’s crew and captain didn’t want to miss a single encounter.
This time, I turned towards the horizon and saw not just one but three whale tails flicking water into the air as their owners played beside the boat, anchored just a few hundred metres from where we were swimming. “It’s two adults and a calf,” confirmed another swimmer, “and they’re coming our way!”

Sure enough, the three whales swam directly towards us, passing our safety boat which was positioned between the tallship and our swim course, ready to collect tired or distressed swimmers at any time. We could see the surprise on the faces of our safety crew as the whales gave another tail flick in close range of their dinghy. This was the closest encounter we had enjoyed so far on our trip and here we were, literally in the water with the creatures as they made a beeline towards us!

After passing our safety boat, the whales submerged. Our group, still treading water, our yellow swim-capped heads bobbing in the turquoise sea shared our joy and awe at this unique experience before one swimmer let out a nervous giggle. “Um, what are we supposed to do if they come over here?”

We all laughed and admitted we didn’t know. “I don’t remember anything about that in the safety briefing,” I replied. “Neither do I!” my companions replied.

We stayed above water for a few more moments, looking for any signs of which direction the whales had headed after submerging but they had disappeared for now. We returned our gaze to the bottom of the ocean and recommenced our swim around the headland, all remaining enchanted by what we had just experienced.

For me, it was not just a memorable adventure experience but the culmination of years of learning to enjoy ocean swimming after a very panicked start during my first attempt at triathlon. I had gone from needing the surf lifesavers to coax me back to shore, their patience and encouragement the only thing that kept me going, to being able to jump off a boat and confidently complete 3 km swims with strangers. It had taken years of stressful Saturday mornings, week after week, walking into the water off Bargara with the local ocean swimming group to face my fears and build my ability to deal with whatever the ocean threw at me. Mornings when I would have much preferred to be doing our local ParkRun course than swallowing salt water while reassuring myself that it had only been seaweed that had touched my toes and soothing myself with Dorie’s mantra of “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming”.

Facing the ocean every week and intentionally tuning my attention to the pure magic of ocean swimming paid off. I was now a fully-fledged ocean swimmer with stories of close encounters with manta rays, turtles, and dolphins. I have completed several ocean swimming race events, and I can honestly say, I’ve swum in all conditions. As such, this trip, celebrating my 50th birthday by doing the thing that had once scared me the most, was always going to be memorable but never did I imagine that I would be eye-level with three majestic humpback whales, wondering what to do if they decided to come and play!

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