It was a Sunday and the heavy storm had lasted all night. The morning after the storm, though, was beautiful: blue skies, warm air and a calm, inviting sea touching the shore gently.
那是一个星期天，暴风雨持续了一整夜。然而，暴风雨过后的早晨是美丽的：蓝色的天空，温暖的空气，平静、迷人的大海轻抚着海岸。

My father realised it was a good day for fishing and invited my sister and me to go with him. I was only 14 and fishing had never been my thing, but I decided to go all the same. I'm so glad I did.
我父亲意识到这是一个钓鱼的好日子，于是带上我和妹妹一起去。我只有14岁，钓鱼从来都不是我的爱好，但我还是决定去。我很高兴我去了。

On the road to the harbour we could see the terrible destruction on the coast, but the harbour itself was in fairly good shape. After all, it was protected by the arms of a bay that had only one tiny channel to the sea. As we got on board, we noticed two big humps in the distance.
在通往港口的道路上，我们看到海岸遭到了可怕的破坏，但港口本身还保持得不错。毕竟，它受到海湾的保护，只有一条狭窄的水道通往大海。当我们上船后，我们注意到远处有两个巨大的脊背。

On approaching them, we saw it was a mother whale with her baby. We couldn't believe it - there aren't any whales along the coast here. The storm must have driven them across the ocean into the bay, in which the still water was so badly polluted that nothing could survive.
靠近时，我们看到那是一头母鲸和她的孩子。我们简直不敢相信——这里的海岸没有鲸鱼。一定是风暴把它们带到了海湾，海湾里的静水被严重污染，无法生存。

The little baby whale - actually as big as our boat - was obviously stuck and could not move. The mother dived under the water and came up suddenly, making big whirlpools and waves. "She's trying to help her baby, but on the wrong side," my father said. At this point, my father moved our boat in a semicircle to the other side and, heading the boat towards the baby whale, pushed it gently. With our several gentle pushes the big hump turned over and disappeared under water. Then it swam up right beside its mum. They struggled in their desperate attempts to escape but missed the exit and started heading in the wrong direction. We hurried up to the whales and tried to lead them towards the bay channel. Slowly, they let us lead them, sometimes rising from the water right beside us to breathe - and to give us a trusting look with those huge eyes. Once they hit their first part of clean water flowing straight from the sea, the mum gave us a wave with her tail and off they swam into the distance.
和我们船一样大的小鲸鱼显然被卡住了，无法移动。母鲸潜入水中，突然浮出水面，形成了巨大的漩涡和波浪。我父亲说：“她想帮助她的孩子，但她错了。”这时，我父亲把我们的船划了半圆，移到了另一边，把船朝着小鲸鱼驶去，轻轻地推了推。我们轻轻推了几下，大脊背翻了过来，消失在水下。然后它就在母鲸身边游了上来。它们拼命逃跑，但却错过了出口，开始朝错误的方向前进。我们急忙赶到鲸鱼身边，想把它们引向海湾水道。慢慢地，它们让我们带领着，有时从我们旁边的水里浮出水面呼吸，用那双大眼睛给我们一个信任的眼神。当它们第一次触碰到直接从海中流出的清水时，母鲸用尾巴向我们挥了挥手，游向了远处。

In the excitement it had felt like only a few minutes, but we had been with those wonderful animals for almost an hour and a half. That was the simple and lasting beauty of the day. Nearly four decades later, I still look back fondly to that golden day at sea.
在兴奋中，感觉只有几分钟，但我们和这些奇妙的动物呆了将近一个半小时。这就是那一天简单而持久的美丽。将近四十年过去了，我仍能深情地回想起海上的那一天。