Bad Weather / Consciences Skipper

I'm in my office its 9.10 am and the weather is not nice. I have contacted all those who have bookings for us today and told them we will not be cruising. All understand and are pleased that I have contacted them. Most can come tomorrow when the weather is forecast to be much, much, better. Yesterday the weather had not quite set in at 9 am but knowing that it was not far away I informed passengers that we would not be travelling. One group of three could not say in town until Friday as they had to be in Augusta. They asked if the whales had been seen there. I have not spoken to Paul at "Naturalist Charters"  for a while so took the opportunity to phone him to see how he is going. Yep heaps of whales but a little sick of the weather was his response.

The charter boat next to us did cruise and some asked why. I read on their board today "Wild, wild wonderful weather and our passengers had a ball. All return free." I ask you how you can enjoy a boat cruise with very strong winds and heavy rain.

I have been doing this a long time now and I do not know any one who enjoys seasickness. I do not cancel cruises, for no reason. But I refuse to cruise just to get your money. This at times costs me but I would rather people left town saying the weather stopped them seeing a whale than being angry with me for taking them out in horrendous weather conditions.

Breaching Humpbacks

Its a great day and as we head out and chat to Bernie it sound as if all of the whales are out deep. That's fine as the weather is calm, a little cold but calm. We have a lady on board who has travelled the world to see whales and has warned me that she has not had a lot of luck in the past. I tell her that today will be different.

We get out on to the humpback highway and see a blow about 1 km away. We find 3 whales and follow them towards Bald Head they are just cruising. We see 2 whales about 500 metres out to sea and one blow inshore. We follow the 3 whales and as they get close to the land they slow down and at times swim to be close to the boat. 

My friend who was worried about not seeing whales has moved from her wheel chair to one of our comfortable club lounges and I have opened the window next to her so she has an uninterrupted view of these whales. Behind us now we have several large splashes in the distance. I watch to see if it continues and I can see a whale breaching so we head to take a closer look. As we arrive the whale breaches as if in slow motion. We follow and what a great show this whale puts on for our passengers. Looking around I see 2 more blows out to sea and a couple more further east. But we stick with the whale that is still breaching. We have now been watching this whale for about 30 minutes and I have taken about 100 pictures.  Here are a couple of those pictures.

Diving Weekend with St Mary's & Fin Whales

We had the pleasure of students from St Mary's Presbyterian Collage in Perth with us for a dive weekend. Students who have done a dive course and are lucky enough to be able to travel to Albany. The weather was great our first dive was on the "HMAS Perth". Then out to "The Cheynes III". I am always impressed the way the girls conduct their dives all under the watch full eyes of their teacher Mark Staniforth. Sunday we head out towards the islands for our first dive but as we get close I spot two whales. At first glance they look like big humpbacks They cruise past as if on a mission but i question if they are humpbacks or fin whales. We turn and follow for 10 minutes and I see that their fin is a little different than a humpback. Now I am sure they are fin whales :). We leave these whales and head to the dive site known as "The Seal Colony" They love the dive. The kids and staff are blown away by the large plate corals. The weather is getting better and we head to the "SS Cheynes" as the students will be surveying this dive site. Oh yes must do a little work while on such a school camp. The first dive on this site over we have arranged a bbq lunch. A 2 hour surface interval and the students are back in the water. Conditions have calmed off so much that our anchor rope is floating what a great day. Mark comments that it would be a great night for a night dive. We drop every body off at Camp Quaranup. Before all of the dive gear is taken from the jetty the girls thank Eve and myself for arranging some great diving. My response to this is to thank the girls for being such great guests aboard my boat. I tell them that they are credit to their school, their parents and to them self in the way they behave. To give to an idea these kids are very organised on the boat dive gear stored well, they were more organised that many of the adult groups we have on board. They were polite and well mannered. They were keen to do all the tasks that they had to do even though on school camp. It is great to see such enthusiasm.

10 Humpbacks Suround Us !!

Bernie tells us that we have whales just past one of the ships at anchor in King George Sound. We head out to find 3 whales. we stay with these whales for some time and then see huge splashes some 800 metres away. Heading out I hope that these whales stay active but as we arrive they go quiet. Oh well this happens some times I think that throwing your self from the water when you weigh 45 tonne gets a little hard after a while. We give the whales time to rest but " No Bananas" We know that there are some whales in Frenchman Bay so we head over to get a count. We come across 3 more whales, follow them for a while and then cruise into Whale world to get a closer look. As we cruise past whale world the staff are all out on the veranda pointing towards Mistaken Island. We I get a call from Peter Bell who works at Whale World and he asks if I have seen the whales, so far the count is about 8. As we leave whale world it seams that Frenchman Bay is filling with whales. We head to each pod to confirm numbers. 2, 3 , 2, 3 and 2 over near the ship. Conditions are calm and we have a pod of whales heading towards us, I put the motors in neutral and with in a 200 metre radius of the boat we now have 10 whales, 2 pods come together and for a minute I think we are going to see some push and shove. One whale comes half out of the water and lands on another then we see a tail splash and one whale powers away. All goes quiet and the whales continue as before. During this commotion we have had 2 whales cruise up behind us and they are now going under us. We wait until the whales have all moved away and now its time for us to head home although a little latter than usual. But hey was it worth it.  

7 Humpbacks Close, More Cruising By

Another beautiful day. Once again from a lookout on Marine Drive, I have seen several pods of whales making their way along the "Humpback Highway" We are joined by keen passengers on this great day. We enjoy morning tea as we make our way towards the "Highway" Bernie tells me that several whales have been seen all along the line and more whales east of Michaelmas Island. The first pod we find has 2 whales and they are just cruising, we watch them for some time and every one is pleased when the whales lift their tails from the water but I know this means that the whales will dive deep for a few minutes and then re-appear some distance away. We know more whales are coming up behind us and we are constantly looking for a breach.  We turn and head east leaving the first 2 whales to head past "Bald Head" The second pod we find have 3 whales, 1 larger whale and 2 smaller whales, most likely a couple of juveniles. As we follow them one of the smaller whales throws it self from the water tail first every time it comes to the surface. Very hard to capture but I can hear the whirl of camera motor drives every time the whale surfaces. They too get close to Bald Head and we leave them, to check on the "New Zealand Fur Seals" in "Bald Head Cove". I make comment that if I am ever reincarnated I wish to be a seal. They don't seem to do much. We head home and as we cross King George Sound we see whales breaching ahead, in the distance. By the time we get there the whales have stop breaching we stay with them long enough to confirm numbers and then head on our way. Getting back to the marina late no one seams to be worried, passengers are still going through the pictures they have  taken to see if they have captured the moment. It is easy now days to take 200 photos on a cruise if the whales are doing the right thing.

7 Whales

Calm conditions greet us today. I have spent time sitting at the car park on Marine Drive and seen 3 pods of whales cruising on the Humpback Highway. We head out towards Limestone Head, knowing that the whales I saw earlier from Marine Drive would now be well and truly past Bald Head and so we will not catch up with them. It dose not matter though as out spotter Bernie has seen several pods out on the line. We find the first pod, a pair of whales and they are just cruising. Looking east here come another 3 whales but one is making a bit of a splash. We go to get a closer look. The pod is made up of 2 large whales and a smaller one. Its the little one who is making the splash. We follow these guys until they get close to Bald Head and then we head off to check out seals in the Bald Head Cove. As we head in that direction we spot 2 whales off to our port side. We turn in that direction and the whales now head towards us. They disapiar for a little while, passengers question where they have gone. But then as if on key, a whale bursts from the water, within 100 metres from our vessel. Too quickly and unexpected for any one to get any pictures other than the splash as the whale crashes back to the sea surface.

Sick Whale?

Weather conditions have improved greatly. We head out after Bernie has informed me that a quiet whale is at the last starboard marker. As we head out of the channel we see the first blows. It only takes a few minutes to arrive in the are the blows were seen. The whale appears and I think I have seen the whale several times over the last week, each time it has been very quiet and hard to find, we stay with it for quiet some time. As Bernie said the whale was quiet but "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" The conditions are calm and at times the whale pops up close to the boat and gets a look at passengers on-board our boat. After about 1 hour the whale has moved about 1000 metres and is slowly heading out towards the islands. We leave the this quiet whale and head over towards Frenchman's Bay. As we leave the whale I start to question if this whale is the one we have seen recently why is it still in the area, is it sick or just taking its time to make the migration north. We will keep a look out over the next week to see if it is still in the area. We may contact CALM if we see it again.