Crazy Weather

What is happening to our weather. I can not remember ever having E-NE winds at this time of year. please weather gods give us back the NW-W winds we should be having. Tuesday we did not have enough people wanting to go on a cruise. Tomorrow will be better I am sure, I will take advantage of the time to fuel the boat up, in readiness. I put 1000 litres of fuel in and take the boat back to its pen, walk away ready for the following days trip. Caltex phone me later in the day to tell me they have found water in the diesel tanks and several people are having troubles, and it would be good if I had not yet put the fuel in my tanks. Oh Sh-t. I go to the boat early Wednesday morning and drain some fuel off to make sure any water is drained away after being able to settle over night. As the motors have been running I also decide to change the fuel filters, easier to do along side the jetty than out at sea. I run the genset from the port tank after filter change and all is fine then just before we head out of the pen i start the port motor. It runs for a short time then stops. Not good with passengers on board. I bleed the fuel system and I just get more air. I check the filter and see fuel running down the side. in my haste I have not seen the o-ring has fallen out and now I have no seal. I fix the problem and the engine fires into life. We head out of the harbour and cruise along the northern coast of King George Sound, out to Michaelmas Island, over to Seal Rock, back through Frenchman Bay, past Mistaken Island but can not find a whale today. Was it the whale gods or the weather gods that were trying to tell me something?

Season Start

I wake to light N-NE winds and I head past Marine Drive on the way to the boat. Calm conditions for our first whale watching cruise. As I walk on board the boat to head out a call comes in from a local tug. Eric tells me that 2 Humpback whales are crossing the shipping channel not far from where he is waiting, for a wood chip ship, which will be brought into the port this morning. We find the whales very close to shore at Point King. They are very quiet maybe because the ship is now coming up the channel. We stick with these whales for some time, even enjoying morning tea. At times the whales do come close enough to get a good look but they are very quiet. We head off thinking me might find some dolphins for those children on board whom seem more interested in dolphins than whales. We cruise over towards Frenchman Bay going through the shallow channel at Mistaken Island. As we round the mussel lease I see a large splash out past Seal Rock.  We arrive to find 2 young humpbacks, if you were quick enough you may have been lucky enough to get some photos, of them breaching. May be they are starting to tire be cause they don't breach again while we are close. We follow them as the head towards Bald Head. We leave them as the water becomes confused and head towards home in time for lunch. I can relax now as I have all the children up on the fly-bridge, driving us home, as there parents capture the moments, the smiles tell the story.

4 Humpbacks

Friday 8 pm and the lighting and thunder start. 6 am and thunder is still cracking through the skies of Albany, reports are coming in the we have had 150mm of rain over night. Knowing we were in for some bad weather I had already cancelled the days cruises. I arrive at the boat to check it and I am meet by a local fisherman that questions if I have intentions to cruise. Les tells me that there is a large sea running and he cant imagine we will be going any where for a few days. I head up to Marine Drive look out to see what I can see. Les was not wrong. Several friends are also there and we chat about the conditions.
Sunday morning and 25 knot E-NE winds are forecast and conditions still are not that good. I looking out over King George Sound when Bernie Hill arrives and as we chat we spot 2 humpbacks out near the Islands. Have I made the wrong decision not to cruise today. What's more important peoples comfort or my profit. I acknowledge the decision has been made so head off to do a few things. During my travels I go past the look out again and stop where a large group of people are pointing down just off marine drive. As I walk up to the group they inform me that there are 2 whales cruising past. I watch as they head to the entrance of Princess Royal Harbour. They disappear and although I head to a better vantage point I do not see them again. Well lets hope we can find some tomorrow. 

Weather Gods

Well it seams that the weather gods don't want us to look for whales this weekend. We had planed on doing our first whale watching cruise this weekend, but with strong SE winds the weather is not good enough. To tell the truth even if it was the height of the season and we could see large numbers of whales I am sure we would not be cruising. I want my passengers to enjoy their cruise. I would rather you went home and said "the weather was not good enough" than 'it was way to rough and the skipper is a crazy man"

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.

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.

Season starting soon, as first whales now being seen.

2012's whale watching season is not far from starting, as today one of the dive operators in Albany told me that they had spotted a Humpback whale while diving out between Michaelmas and Breaksea Island. We had also heard of a southern right whale being sighted off "Two Peoples Bay" some 3 weeks ago. Our tours should start in the first week of June.