The Merger

Due, in part, to the nature of the Bayer array sensors in my digital cameras; I tend to treat the "blue" channel data rather like a step child! I do noise reduction mostly for blues. During channel mixing, I usually discard most of the blue channel data.

And, here, you treat it as it should have always been!

Other than a hint of green (which adds immensely to the overall effect) you present here an almost monochromatic image with a rich tonal range.

I guess, you have exposed the sky and the sea separately and have merged them to get the merger!

Still, I do not understand why it still looks surreal to me!

Good guess, Bulent, but no cigar! I'll attach the raw file. What I did was "stretch" scale the water and the sky to eliminate the spit of land and boat in the original shot. The blues and greens/aquas here are offbeat colors but actually true to nature.