Breaching Whales

Bernie comes down to the boat just before we depart the marina to tell me that there are 2 whales close to a boat that is currently at "Gia Batter Reef" But he tells me that they are very quiet. We head out over a beautifully calm King George Sound to find the boat but can not find the whales. Bernie radios me and tells me that it looks like a couple of quiet whales are out close to Breaksea Island, we continue slowly out towards the seal colony on Breaksea Island, still not finding any whales. We head towards Limestone Head and as we get close and no doubt with the passengers now thinking we will not see any whales, I spot 2 very quiet whales heading towards us close to the coast. The call of "there she blows"  brings everybody to the bow or upstairs to see what I have found. I knock the boat out of gear so we can see which way the whales are travelling. The whales appear off to our port side so we turn to follow them. In my mind I am thinking that this is going to be a quiet day with just a few tail shots form these whales for our passengers to capture. Then they break loose, both whales burst from the surface and continue to breach for about 20 minutes. At times breaching very close to us. These whales were so close at times as they burst from the water you could see every marking on their bellies. It is about now I am wondering why I left my camera on the back seat of my car back at the marina. The whales are making their way towards Bald Head, and after a while they start to quieten down. At times laying on their side and slapping their pectoral fin on the sea surface. We follow them a little further and then head home. With the whales behind us every body is busy checking to see if they had captured the spectacular show we had all witnessed. There were some great shots. Message to self "don't leave camera in car again".

"15 Humpback Whales for the Day"

We head out of the channel with word coming from Bernie that whales are close to Limestone Head. We head in that direction but by the time we get there the whales have headed around Bald Head. We follow although it is still a little choppy out there. The first whale we find is a small whale about 10 metres in length. This whale is taking 2 breaths and then diving so we look for another. Two blows 500 metres away so we go and take a look at these whales. Conditions are a bit ordinary and the whales don't want to play the game. We see another pod and they stay on the surface longer so we go take a look. We get a better look at these whales and travel with them for a little. Seeing two blows east of us I head in that direction as we are now getting some distance from Bald Head. Two whales cruise past us not even slowing down. I decided that we have had enough of the conditions with south easterly winds on the left over south westerly swell from the last cold front, so i tell the passengers that we will go back into King George Sound to see if we can find anything. We try to contact Bernie but I think he has headed home. I spot several blows over towards Breaksea Island. I count 5 blows so we go to have a look. We find 7 humpbacks now in 3 pods and all going in different directions, we pick the pair that are heading in towards Seal Rock and stay with them. With passengers getting great pictures of that amazing tail as the whale lifts it from the water in the motion of diving. We stick with this pair until we pass Seal Rock and then we leave them and head to travel through the passage between Mistaken Island and the mainland.
"Think Whales Think Albany"
Master of the vessel Paul Guest.