The Visitor

Today has been a glorious day, with the sea sparkling and the sky so deep blue it was nearly purple. I spent an hour in the sea and came out only with great reluctance.

It was on a day like this, years ago, that I was in a rowing boat on the sea with Stuart and Gordon and their parents. They were staying at the hotel too and were both keen swimmers. Gordon was slightly younger than me – about ten, at that time – Stuart slightly older, about thirteen. In those days the hotel owned a couple of rowing boats that residents were free to borrow at will – ah, those casual times!

Stuart and Gordon invited me to go with them round to the next bay and we all climbed into the boat with their father rowing. The tide was well in and we gradually progressed round to the next bay, which I found particularly interesting because it can only be reached on foot at very low tide, and it’s full of interesting rocks and little caves.

Just when we were as far away from North Beach as we were planning to go, suddenly we saw a large, black, triangular fin, gliding above the water towards our boat. We looked at each other. It was before the film Jaws came out, but even so, we knew what a triangular fin above the water meant - - and it meant a shark.

Yet surely it couldn’t be, not in our safe blue sea, not in Pembrokeshire. Stuart and Gordon’s dad started rowing back, very very fast, while reminding us that there are no wolves in England now, nor are there any bears, you could not meet one after dark upon the nursery stairs. Or that was the gist of it, anyway. Their mum helpfully reminded everyone that she couldn’t swim. The dark fin drew nearer.

Just when we thought it was about to crash into the boat, instead it leaped high into the air in a perfect arc and we all cheered and sighed with relief and pretended we KNEW ALL ALONG that it couldn’t be a shark, oh yes, of course, we all knew a dolphin when we saw one.

The dolphin followed us back very nearly to the shore and stayed in the bay all afternoon, leaping in the air, catching a jellyfish and tossing it up and catching it again and generally showing off for the holidaymakers. The owner of our hotel’s son had a speedboat and took out parties of people all afternoon to watch it, and it seemed very happy to be on show.

The next day it was gone and I have never seen a dolphin here since. Apparently that summer there was a dolphin seen off one of the Cornish beaches that stayed around all summer, and the general feeling seemed to be that it had popped up to Tenby for a day trip. I think everyone who was there that day will remember it all their lives.