Strong winds were forecast but it looks like that will be latter today.
We head out and everyone has joined me on the fly-bridge, Bernie comes over the two-way to tell me that he has seen a very quiet whale half way between a ship at anchor and Seal Rock. We will keep a lookout as we go past but we know that we have several pods cruising on the "Humpback Highway"
We are off Limestone Head when we see our first blows. We have some heading towards Bald Head from out deep, and 2 pods further east. We pick one of the eastern pods and head that way. Then I see another blow off our starboard side. Ok we will go have a look.
We find 2 adult humpbacks, we have now stopped and are waiting for them to swim past us so we can follow. They are now off our port side and we are slowly travelling towards Bald Head. Now the whales stop and cut past our stern. I see that they have some dolphins with them. This can be good as at times they will chase the dolphins and dolphins will come to the boat.
Now they are heading into King George Sound, but that is not a dolphin, I see a very small Humpback calf. The first calf I have seen this year. When I first started whale -watching we did not see Humpbacks calves. Last year we saw about 15 for the season.
I have asked those that may know why this is. And the answer I get is that we have never had so many Humpback whales since we started keeping records and numbers are increasing by about 8% per year. With increasing populations we get a increase in chances of cows falling pregnant early in the season or the chance premature berths. What ever the reason its great to see.
We follow the cow, calf and midwife. (an adult female that will accompany an pregnant cow) until they get close to the headland where they stop for a rest it seems. They stay in the same place for about 10 minutes and then forge on again. We follow until they pass the seal cove at Bald Head and we leave them on their migration north.
We go in and check on the New Zealand Fur Seals then head back into King George Sound, I did see several blows heading in to the sound when we were travelling with the cow and calf, so we will stay alert.
We have not travelled too far before I see a disturbance and as we approach we find a juvenile humpback surrounded by about 30 Common Dolphins. We knock the engines out of gear as the dolphins head over to us and the young whale follows. It gets to about 20 metres away and then turns and swims away. Some of the dolphins stay with us and when the whale is far enough away we engage the engines and idle away. As we increase the revs dolphins come to the bow and start to ride the bow wave.
Now we head towards Whale-world and along Goode Beach and back into the marina in time for lunch. Staying on the fly-bridge I am constantly keeping a lookout and today I see several blows half way across the Sound. We don't go to investigate this time.
We head out and everyone has joined me on the fly-bridge, Bernie comes over the two-way to tell me that he has seen a very quiet whale half way between a ship at anchor and Seal Rock. We will keep a lookout as we go past but we know that we have several pods cruising on the "Humpback Highway"
We are off Limestone Head when we see our first blows. We have some heading towards Bald Head from out deep, and 2 pods further east. We pick one of the eastern pods and head that way. Then I see another blow off our starboard side. Ok we will go have a look.
We find 2 adult humpbacks, we have now stopped and are waiting for them to swim past us so we can follow. They are now off our port side and we are slowly travelling towards Bald Head. Now the whales stop and cut past our stern. I see that they have some dolphins with them. This can be good as at times they will chase the dolphins and dolphins will come to the boat.
Now they are heading into King George Sound, but that is not a dolphin, I see a very small Humpback calf. The first calf I have seen this year. When I first started whale -watching we did not see Humpbacks calves. Last year we saw about 15 for the season.
I have asked those that may know why this is. And the answer I get is that we have never had so many Humpback whales since we started keeping records and numbers are increasing by about 8% per year. With increasing populations we get a increase in chances of cows falling pregnant early in the season or the chance premature berths. What ever the reason its great to see.
We follow the cow, calf and midwife. (an adult female that will accompany an pregnant cow) until they get close to the headland where they stop for a rest it seems. They stay in the same place for about 10 minutes and then forge on again. We follow until they pass the seal cove at Bald Head and we leave them on their migration north.
We go in and check on the New Zealand Fur Seals then head back into King George Sound, I did see several blows heading in to the sound when we were travelling with the cow and calf, so we will stay alert.
We have not travelled too far before I see a disturbance and as we approach we find a juvenile humpback surrounded by about 30 Common Dolphins. We knock the engines out of gear as the dolphins head over to us and the young whale follows. It gets to about 20 metres away and then turns and swims away. Some of the dolphins stay with us and when the whale is far enough away we engage the engines and idle away. As we increase the revs dolphins come to the bow and start to ride the bow wave.
Now we head towards Whale-world and along Goode Beach and back into the marina in time for lunch. Staying on the fly-bridge I am constantly keeping a lookout and today I see several blows half way across the Sound. We don't go to investigate this time.
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