Nearly midnight and dolphins lurk in the darkness, alongside our boat. We hear them breathe but glimpse them only briefly in swirls of black water.

Flashback to our Mediterranean crossing: in darkness, 120 miles west of Sardinia, Wrack disturbs a sleeping whale. It slaps the sea close by the hull, and rolls away, churning the low swell to a white froth while blowing a saline mist and noxious rotting fish smell.