He was asleep beside me on his front, snoring heavily. He looked so peaceful and, for a second, just like the teenager I used to know – but I was worried something bad was happening so persevered with waking him.

‘Mmmmm?’

I pointed. ‘I think there’s a shark or something. I don’t know. Look.’

Patrick rolled over and propped himself up on an elbow, his gaze dreamily following where my finger was pointing and scanning what was happening.

‘Stingrays,’ he concluded. ‘See the black thing in the water? They come here.’ He rubbed his eyes with one hand and searched for his sunglasses. ‘I read about it. Come on, let’s go and look.’

As we approached I could see a shadow floating on the sea’s surface.

‘Aren’t they dangerous?’ I asked.

‘Stingrays? Nah.’

‘Didn’t Steve Irwin die from a stingray …?’

A woman with a blue mohawk and septum ring overheard me.

‘He was pierced through the chest by a stingray barb. Freak accident. These fellas won’t hurt you, though. We’re lucky to catch them.’

‘That’s dreadful. Wow.’

The man next to her, also with a matching blue mohawk, only slightly longer and brighter, volunteered: ‘These lads are here to feed and look good, ain’t that right, guys?’

The thin black ripple in the water must have been as long as me, and half as wide. It was so strange to look at, like a black bin bag floating just below the surface, gleaming and glassy. It was slow, in complete control of itself whilst also seemingly at the whim of the current. It was so serene. I was enthralled.

‘What do they eat?’ I asked the woman, and then I felt silly for assuming she was some sort of stingray expert. The man spoke for her.

‘Crustaceans, mostly. The stingray senses the electrical current in their prey’s muscles and nerves, and then the prey is sucked into the mouth and crushed. The flesh is swallowed and the shell fragments get expelled back into the sea through the slits in their gills. As long as we don’t disturb them, we’re fine. You make sure to keep your distance, all right?’

‘Paul,’ the woman said to him, rolling her eyes teasingly. ‘You just told her that as if I wasn’t the one who explained it all to you.’

‘Thank you both for sharing your collective knowledge,’ said Patrick, charismatically. ‘It’s kind of beautiful to look at, isn’t it?’

‘You tourists?’ the woman asked.

I nodded. ‘Here for the week.’

‘It’s unusual to see these so soon. The water is clear enough in the summer but we’re still early, really.’