What A Differance a Day Makes.

A quiet day today. Beautifully calm and we could see dolphins all over King George Sound. 

We could see that the Southern Right Whales had left Middleton Beach but heard that at 0900 hours at least 1 Humpback had been seen close to Seal Rock. 

We stop off on the way to enjoy some dolphins swimming at the bow. We cruise past Seal Rock and don't see any whales and Peter Bell at Whale World tells us he has not seen any sign this morning. 

We head towards Bald head and Jason spots a blow some 2km away. We head it that direction and this whale is being hard to find. 

But with 16 years experience finding whales I have learnt a thing or two. Although some times I do get more than a little frustrated. Knowing a whale is close and being able to show passengers a whale are two different things. Well we find the whale and its the same whale that spent 90 minutes swimming around us yesterday. 

Not today though it takes several breaths and dives. We watch it for a while but he is not playing the game today. We head off to Breaksea Island cruise past the seals then on to Nanarup Beach, and back towards the harbour. 

And we now know the Southern Rights have left the area.

Strong Winds

No cruise today as we have strong winds from the South West but they are forecast to subside tonight.

Wednesday 3rd.
The winds were forecast to strengthen so we head along Goode Beach as Bernie has told us that we have a quite whale some where in the area.

We find a very quiet whale just off Flat Rock. As it is just laying on the surface I start to wonder if it may be sick. It has some markings on its back and I try to get some photos. When the other charter boat arrives in the area the whale stirs,  swims down the side of our boat and then turns and starts to make its way to Bald Head. We follow as the whale is cruising close to the coast. We leave as we get close to seal cove at Bald Head and go to check the seals.

As we make our way into the cove we spot 2 more humpbacks heading towards Bald Head. We have seen more blows east but the wind is strengthening so I am not sure we want to go too far from the shelter of the coast.

Then I see a breach about 800 metres away, then a second so we must go and investigate. As we get there we slow when we get close to the area with the motors out of gear and with anticipation we wait. Then just 50 Metres from the bow we have a whale burst from the water.
Some of our passengers get photos but we all see it. This whale dives and then swims south west so we leave and head home.

Now the rain is closing in so I am alone on the fly-bridge. We cruise back into King George Sound and in the distance I see several blows. We will  keep an eye on them and hopefully they will continue on their current heading. The wind is now lifting spray over the boat so I change direction and head more into the wind so I don't get too wet and can watch these whales as they head in towards Goode Beach. We meet with them inshore of Seal Rock and as it is still raining most of the passengers choose to stay on the aft deck so as to stay dry and they are able to get some photos of 6 humpbacks cruising. We follow until they get very close to shore. They head north along the beach and as its on our way home we stick with them until they turn and head south back along the beach once again.

We head home and are met by a local professional fisherman in a small boat waiting at the channel entrance, as we enter the channel he follows us so we calm the water a little for him.

Tuesday 2nd.
2 Humpbacks @ Safe Water Marker,
2 Humpbacks cruise in towards Marine Drive,
3 Humpbacks cruising on the humpback highway.
More whales out deeper but no need to go out further.

Monday 1st.
1 humpback west of Michaelmas Island with tail out of water. Possible cow about to give birth.
2 Humpbacks cruising between Islands.
2 Humpbacks east of Breaksea Island.
3 Humpbacks travel towards Bald Head from east of Breaksea Island. More blows south of us as we follow the 3 above.

Sunday 30th June.
2 humpbacks swim around us for 1 hour in the middle of King George Sound.
1 Adult Humpback swims over Herald reef.


Saturday 29th.
1 quiet swims around us in King George Sound
1 Humpback swimming towards Bald Head from Middle of KGS.
6-8 Humpbacks cruising on the Humpbacks Highway. Lots of action.

A New Baby

You just cant put off doing your blog page because before long its been a week.

We find 1 lone very very quite whale at the channel markers with 20 plus dolphins but it blows and then dives and stays down, so we just continue over to Goode Beach as we have heard that several ways are heading in that direction.

We find 4 adult humpbacks off flat rock close to Whale-world. We follow until they get to Bald Head Cove and then we go to check on the seal colony. I have seen some more blows to the east and as we get close I see one of the blows is very small. The cow and calf are accompanied with another adult. From what I have learnt this whale will be a midwife. An adult cow that will help with the birth and may be with the protection of the calf as they all continue on their migration to warmer waters. They swim towards us then change directions several times, when they head south we leave them to go on their way. We did grab a couple of pictures just for the record.

This week I have spotted the following whales.

Thursday
Whales seen breaching between Islands.

Wednesday
1 small humpback close to Seal Rock
1 small humpback breaches further out, we go to investigate and it swims around us for 45 minutes.
1 large and 1 small humpback just off Whale -world
2 adult humpbacks northern end of Goode Beach.

Tuesday
No cruise due to strong winds.

Monday
4 Adult humpbacks cruising in King George Sound.

Sunday
2 Humpbacks @ the safe water marker.
2 Humpbacks @ Seal Rock.
4 Humpbacks just off Whale-world. 1 is very small but with adult markings. We get photos and send to Doug Coughran at CALM to get his opinion as to what may be wrong with this whale.
2 Humpback northern end of Good Beach.

Humpback Cow, Calf & Midwife.

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.

Too Many To Count (Some passengers said)

Another great day weather wise today.

I drive around Marine Drive on my way to the boat this morning and find Bernie feeding the magpies. We spot several blows out deep.

We head out of the channel and while I'm chatting to Bernie on the radio Eve comes out to say she has seen a blow off the port side. We slow and I relay to Bernie what Eve has seen. Bernie says he thought he saw a disturbance but cant confirm a whale, but he has been looking deep most of the time. We continue towards Limestone Head. We chat about the young whale we have seen recently around Seal Rock, so we are keeping a look out.

Eve comes to the fly-bridge with my morning coffee (What happened to my muffin Eve) and I tell all of the passengers to enjoy morning tea before we find a whale. It has not been 5 minutes and passengers along side me spot a blow off in the distance.

We are about 800 metres off the head land and two whales are heading towards Bald Head. They are very quiet, taking 2 breaths and then diving for some time.
All of our passengers now know what to look for and now we are seeing whale blows popping up all over.  We head off to find some that may be more active. We go to the closest pair and they dive too.

BREACH is the cry and people are pointing towards the rocks. I saw the splash.
BREACH again but this time out deep. :)

We find another pair of whales, follow until they dive then turn and make our way east to find the next pod of whales that are heading toward the west. Three off to the starboard side but we are heading to three whales that are playing on the surface. They stop and now the 3 starboard side, are tail slapping.

BREACH in the sun. (I saw this one)

Blows north of us heading into King George Sound.
Blows out deep, blows east, blows south. Several passengers state that there are too many whales to count.

BREACH out deep. :)
BREACH. A whale has breached off to our starboard side. Now people are checking to see if they have captured it. :)
 
We head towards the 3 whales and follow them leaving them as they head around Bald Head. We go into the cove and find some New Zealand Fur Seals. Now heading East again to find some more whales. We have several pods heading our way, but some way off there is quite a disturbance on the surface. From the fly-bridge I can see whales rising out of the water some distance then falling back into the water and then continuing on there way.

We find 4 whales. As they travel west they are staying close to the surface, we can see their white bellies as they roll over under the surface.
They are crashing into each other and at times rising 1/3 out of the water then falling back in. Some times arching their backs and coming to a sudden stop, to then lift their tail and dive, just to break the surface with-in a few body lengths. They are cruising and the sound of the breaths is some thing to hear when they all break  the surface at once.

Motor drives are working over time until we leave these whales as they round Bald Head.

More whales are heading towards us from the east but its time to head back to the marina.

We spot a juvenile and slow the motors as we pass by. Then he slaps his tail on the surface and dives.
BREACH.  :)
The young whale has come clean out of the water, rolled over on its back and now crashes back to the surface to screams from our passengers who were lucky enough to see it.

Ok now we can head home via Whale-world and Goode Beach.

2 Humpbacks Enter Princess Royal Harbour

Clear skies and a light breeze from the north greet us when we arrive at the boat.
We head out towards Limestone Head and Helen one of our passengers thinks that she has seen a blow over towards Seal Rock. I slow the boat and within a few minutes we spot 2 blows.

With-in a few minutes of us following this pair of adult humpbacks, one throws its self out of the water backwards. The whales then continue the journey over towards Middleton Beach. At one point swimming up to the side of a ship that is at anchor in King George Sound much to the surprise of the ships crew.

Peter Bell from Whale-world phoned to let me know that he had 2 whales, just several hundred metres off whale world, that were slapping their tails on the surface.  But there was no need to leave these guys as at times they would get curious and come over to check us out.

We follow the whales until they arrive off Marine Drive and we can hear screams coming from a group of children standing at one of the lookouts. The whales cruise around not quite sure which way to go. Now quite a few people have gathered at the APEX lookout on Marine Drive. When the whales enter and then leave the channel entrance we leave and head back to the marina.

Beautiful weather and a very relaxing cruise.

First whales for cruise season.

Well it was a little overcast, but we have very light winds. The round the streets car race in Albany is playing havoc with people trying to get around the road detours. We leave the marina a little late so step up the pace a little. Heading out towards Limestone Head I spot a faint blow, reducing revs as I am not sure which way the whales are travelling. They are quiet so we knock the motors out of gear and then Eve spots a blow back towards town. We idle back to where the whales were last seen and I hear a blow behind us. Looking off the stern the whales are swimming towards us. Once again I take the engines out of gear and we drift as the whales swim up close to the joy of some of our Indian passengers. The whales are quiet and they swim around us and then off toward the headland. We follow them until they head around Bald Head. We head in toward some New Zealand Fur Seals and then cruise along the coast towards home. Even being overcast passengers comment on the beautiful colours of the water, we do live in a pretty place.

Here They Come

Tuesday morning and we have 52 students from a Rockingham school join us on a morning cruise. We head out and cruise along Outer Brambles cruise over the passage between Mistaken Island and the northern end of Goode Beach. We enjoy some morning tea as we look for some dolphins. As we sit off Whale World talking about the days of whaling in Albany one of the local fishing boats calls to tell me that they spotted a couple of blows in a line between the the safe water marker and Michaelmas Island. We head out to see if we can find the whales. We do have some time constraints so cant spend too much time looking. But no luck today. We head towards Middleton Beach and back towards home and as we re-enter Princess Royal Harbour the deck from the fishing boat that had spotted the whale phones me to say he is sitting up on  Marine Drive and he can see the whales we were looking for, but they are now on the outer limits of King George Sound.