Breaching Whales Suprise.

Once again strong winds are forecast but we don't seem to be getting to much as we leave the marina.

We have seen several blows over towards Limestone Head while sitting on Marine Drive earlier. As we get close to the line, we see a blow about 1 km away and heading around Bald Head.
As we head in that direction I see a breach off the port bow. I think that's the one, we will follow today.

We get closer and find 3 whales heading west. We follow around Bald Head and with the wind increasing a little, its better conditions in the le of the headland, as we travel along Flinders Peninsular.

Unexpectedly we have a whale breach, catching all the passengers off guard. No one gets a photo. All is quiet for about 20 minutes as we cruise along with the whales and then we get another breach. And the whales seam to have speed up. Then passengers count 4 whales as they surface for a breath. We follow for a while longer hoping that we will witness more breaching.

We are some distance from Bald Head now and have been with the whales for nearly 1 hour so we turn and head for the Bald Head Cove, where a colony of New Zealand Fur Seals reside. Our Kiwi passengers note that the seals are quite small compared to the seals in their home town who are a traffic hazard when they lay on the roads to keep warm on a winters day.

Which Way Are You Going Now?

After a 60th birthday celebration Eve arrived early to take down all the decorations before today's passengers board the boat. The weather is calm but as we make our way across the sound it seems that the SSE winds have arrived early and we get a very light drizzle. We head to Limestone Head and with no sightings turn to Breaksea Island. We round the north eastern end of the island and then head back towards Bald Head. Misty rain is making it hard, but out of the corner of my eye I spot a couple of blows. We turn and head further south catching up with 2 Humpbacks as the head towards Bald Head. We follow and now whales seem to be appearing every where, several large splashes even further south tell us that whales are now breaching. Some times when you spot a whale breach you can be tempted to head straight to it, but some times a whale will only breach once and then stop. We choose a whale that is standing on its head and waving it tail to attract our attention. As we get to with in 250 metres the whales dive and are next seen heading east. Come on guys that's the wrong way!!!! We follow and now they are heading west. Out next sighting is as they lift their tails and take a dive so we head back towards the marina.

Two Humpbacks Cruise Past

Well folks over the weekend we have enjoyed the company of divers from "The Dive Shed" Busselton. Two dives on the dive wreck "HMAS Perth" on Saturday and then "The Cables" and the "Cheynes II" today.
 The weather was perfect and as we headed out to the islands this morning several km from Princess Royal Harbour channel I spotted 1 Humpback whales cruise past several hundred metres away. We slowed to give the divers a quick look but this whale did not wish to be seen again. The guys loved the dive at "The Cables" And we headed over to the Cheynes II for our surface inter-vile. As the last of the divers are entering the water for there dive on the wreck of an old whale-chaser "Cheynes II" a call from several non divers enjoying the day on the fly bridge, alerts us that 2 humpbacks are cruising from with in "King George Sound" towards "Bald Head" They are about 1000m to our stern and just cruising, we watch them, and one of the divers jokes that she is worried about the whales coming close. Oh she should be so lucky. Id love to dive with a humpback whale as it cruises past.

Something to add to my bucket list, "head to Tonga and dive with Humpbacks" So the whales are arriving now we need some whale watchers.

"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.

"A Hard Day"

We are greeted by calm weather, not what was forecast, so we take advantage of the fact that the weather patten has slowed down and head out with word from Bernie that a quiet whale has been seen half way between the safe water marker and Seal Rock. We slow down well before we get to the area and chat to Bernie over the two way radio. He hasn't seen the whale for a while and i have not seen any thing, We spot whales in several ways. The blow can be seen from some distance when you know what to look for, some times on the boat a whale can be close to the horizon and we see the blow. Now its not caused from water that's inside a whales lung, as they are mammals and if they had water in their lungs they would drown, just like us.  It is caused when their warm breath hits the atmosphere, from any water that's around the blow hole being atomized and mucous that is inside the whales lungs. Some whales have a lung capacity of a small car and it seams to take a very short time for a whale to take a breath. We are told that a whale will take "cat naps" of about 20 minutes and shut down half of their brain so they know when water is covering their blow hole.

We also spot whales by a calm patch of water called the whales foot print. caused by the tali even with out the whale breaking the surface of the water. Of course when they start waving at us or breaching that makes them a little easier to see if you are looking in the right direction.
Well we could not find this lone whale so headed towards "the line". (An area between Bald Head and Breaksea Island.) As we get close to Limestone Head Bernie tells me the whale just breached behind us.
So we turn and go the the area and still no luck. We turn and head continue on our previous course. We don't see any blows so continue east until close to Breaksea Island and with strengthening north west winds I decide to travel the south side of the Island and hope to find some whales on the north eastern side of the island. You have to be kidding "no whales there" so we travel between the islands and as we get to the western end of Breaksea I see that the other whale watching boat has taken his sail down so must have a whale close by. We head over to have a look and even when I get close to the area I know that the whales is I can't see it, it is so quiet, just taking 1 breath and then traveling under the surface. Eve my deckie spots this whale eventually and our passengers get to see a young quiet humpback for the first time today. We follow him for some time getting just glimpses as he takes a breath and then vanishes  again. As we get out to Bald Head we see whales further south so we go to see if we can get a better look at these pair. Not today folks they also take 2 breaths and vanish.  More further south. Oh a breach, lets go to these ones, no sorry they also vanish. Well folks it seams that all the whales are camera shy today. It reminds me of a Van Morrison song "Day Like This" One of the hardest days whale watching I've had for a long time.
 "Think Whales Think Albany"
Master of the vessel, Paul Guest

How Many Whales?

Calm weather and sunny skies great us as we leave Princess Royal Harbour. We are told that several blows have been seen out deep on the line between Breaksea Island and Bald head. So off we go at 1800 rpm on our twin Volvo 360 hp motors. Cruising at about 15 kts, we have enough time to enjoy a coffee and then we are in the area the sightings were made. We don't see any blows close so decide to head west towards bald head as passengers on the top deck cry out their she blows !! We catch up with a young humpback, about 8-10 metres long cruising west slow. We follow for some time and as he takes a dive we turn and head east to see blows off in the distance.

Then that huge splash that tells us that the boys have started to show off. Or is it the girls feeling happy. Hey it is mating season :)
"We are often asked why the whales breach? Folks I truly believe its because they can. I have seen adults breach and new born calves follow suit. Are they communicating well may be but they seem to do it for no apparent reason with no apparent out come, and with no predictability"

As we get a little closer we count about 6 blows as the whales hit the surface. Then we see the whales heading towards us, so put the motors in to neutral, then we notice that the whales are chasing a pod of bottle nose dolphins. The dolphins bring great screams of excitement from the group of Indian passengers on board. The whales and dolphins swim around the boat, they seam to be playing a game of tag. After about 10 minutes the whales split into 2 pods some heading off to another pod coming close to see what all the commotion is all about. Whales are all around us, we count about 6 different pods within 1 km. We see a breach and head to that pod hoping it will not be a one of. As we approach the breaching stops. Then another whale breaches several hundred metres away. Now they are just teasing us. No one gets any pics of breaches but some times its just good to take it all in and put it in the memory banks. We leave and head to a colony of New Zealand fur seals. Then its off home, so how many whales did we see. Well I think some where between 18 and 20 close and more, that we just didn't worry about going to. All in all a good day.
Master of the vessel Paul Guest