8 Humpbacks

Peter Bell from Discovery Bay, (Whale World) txt's to say whales are at the dive site HMAS Perth at 0900 hours. We head out and head straight towards Seal Rock. As we get about half way there Jason has joined me and straight away says he can see a whale slapping its tail on the water over towards Limestone Head. It makes sense the whales Peter could be there no troubles. I increase revs and its not long before we are in the area, but cant find the whales easy. Looking, looking, looking.

There they are, WOW they seam quiet for whales that were slapping their tails on the surface not 10 minutes ago. The 2 humpback whales are small and just cruising toward Bald Head just metres off the coast. We follow at times having to stop and wait as the whales are in no rush.
We follow until the whales head out past Bald Head, We are now out in the Southern Ocean and yes we have a bit of swell out here.
We see blows east so head that way to find 2 whales taking several breaths and then diving.

Ok more blows several hundred metres away towards Breaksea Island, so off we go.
We find 4 Humpbacks spending time on the surface at times lurching out of the water. We follow as these whales head west towards Bald Head. The whales are ahead of us and we stop before we head off to check out the seals. Jason who is scanning the area lets every one know we have now 2 whales heading up behind us.
We watch them cruise past and then head off to the seals for a look before we head back in to King George Sound.

As we cruise past Discovery Bay, (Whale World) Jason comes to the fly bridge and as he sits down I say to him that there are two whales over towards a ship that is at anchor. We think they are travelling towards Goode Beach and we talk about cutting them off at the pass.
"Best laid plans of mice and men are bound to go astray"

We head to mid way along Goode Beach after we have explained to our passengers some of the history of the old whaling station. But we don't see the whales blow again. We are running late so we dont worry too much, cutting between Mistaken Island we still cant spot the whales and now the talk is about the may be them being a cow and calf as the second blow was very small and they are very quiet. I guess we will never know.

First Calf For Season

Heading out today the rain cleared and the sun shone through the clouds.
We find 2 whales and follow for a while until they go quiet.
We head east and see blows quickly but it is not regular and although we are travelling slow we don't see again.
We do see a huge splash which can only be one thing a whale breaching some km away from us. I am tempted to travel out to it, but I know that it may be the only breach that the whale does.
As I scan around the vessel I see a blow back towards town.
We head in that direction to find the first Humpback cow and calf for this season.
We stick with these whales as they slowly cruise towards Limestone Head and then cruise along the coast. We leave them and check out 3 humpbacks in the seal cove at Bald Head. We check out the seals and head home, getting back to the marina at about 1245.
A good days whale watching.

Over 10 Whales For Cruise

Strong winds were forecast for Albany this morning but when I arrive at the boat we have very little wind.
We head out and talk to Bernie, who tells us that all the whales are out on the line.
It takes us about 35 minutes to get to where we pick up the first blows. But we see it a couple of times and then its gone. We see blows off towards Breaksea Island and there may be 4-5 whales in this pod so we head in that direction.

As we get closer the pod has broken up. We find 4-5 heading towards Bald Head, 2 whales heading west to Albany, 2 whales several hundred metres north and 3 whales heading south west.
We follow the larger pod as they are charging around with no real direction.
I have the Go-pro mounted on the fly bridge and now recording.
(I am still to go through the footage and see what we captured)
We follow these whales as they slowly head towards Bald Head with many changes in direction.

Now we have one of the other pods join in and the whales become even more active, with whales coming half out of the water or stopping and arching their backs and then diving.
The pod starts to move now faster in any direction. At one point the pod is about 3oo metres from a pod of 3 and there is an all-mighty splash and all the whales have dived. Now foot prints start to appear in the direction of the pod of 3. The whales are charging in that direction just under the surface of the water and when the 2 pods connect the splashes erupt again. It would be amazing to see what happens under the surface at these times. We are now not far from the seals at Bald Head and its about time to head home. We have been watching whales now for about 90 minutes and we all have some photos and video to check to see if we captured any thing we can share with all our friends.

We head home and the wind has increased as forecast wonder what we will have tomorrow.

How Many Whales Today?

Sunday saw a magic day.
Why would you live any where else?
School holidays coming to an end so its not too busy.
We head out towards Bald Head and as we pass Seal Rock while deep in conversation with passengers, blows are spotted off towards Michaelmas Island, about 1km away. We head over and cant find the whales. Ok where did they go.

There they are back there from where we came. What how could they travel so fast. We head back towards Goode Beach. We get close to the foot print and what would you know blows are seen close to where we just left. Ok so we have several whales that are not moving far, but are 700 metres apart.

If they don't want to be watched lets find some that do.
We are now heading east again I spot several blows towards the islands. It look like 4 or 5 whales and they are staying on the surface so we should get a good look. We get closer and now we have several pods. 4-5 here, 3 over there, 2 heading that way and 2 more 200 metres away. Which one's do we follow?
That decision is made easy as the larger pod and breaking the surface constantly. We follow at idle at times having to stop as the whales cut across our bow and then turn and head back in the general direction of Limestone Head.

As we follow these whales ahead we see 600 metres ahead 2 more whales heading west. Our pod slows and change direction and swim around behind the pair that are heading west. They now are close to the land and cruising along the rocks. The other whale watching vessel is very close to the rocks and travelling into King George Sound. The whales dive and go under their boat and continue on their way. We turn and cruise the coast back to the Marina. The wind is light, the sea is flat calm, the sky is blue what a great day for a winters day.

Some Hard Days

Well been a bit slack keeping on top of the updates. Had a couple of hard days because of weather and quiet whales.
But yesterday we were heading out to the line when we spotted breaches. The whale was some distance away from us and heading towards Bald Head. We could see the breaches the whale was putting on a good show. As we got closer the whale went quiet. We were about 500 metres away when a whale watching RIB went past us at speed.
The vessel did not slow and I made comment that he had not seen the whale. I hoped that the whale was not in the path of the vessel and then the whale breached between the RIB and the coast. The RIB then slowed and came to a stop.
After that breach the whale dived and we could not find it for some time. We idle along the coast. We thought it would be travelling around Bald Head and continue in a westerly direction. Not to be.
The whale we spot blows behind us and some distance off the land.

We spot blows 800 metres SE so head in that direction as they are now tail slapping. The whales dive and when they surface they are heading west.
We follow for some time and then pick up 2 more whales in the lee of Bald Head.
We cruise in to check out the seals on our way home. As we re-enter King George Sound we find 2 more whale and follow for a little while as they head towards Seal Rock.

Later we have a party on board and we leave the marina at 3pm. As we idle out just north of the channel we are watching a grain ship head out the channel with the aid of the local tugs. We are listening to the two way and hear Nigel tell the pilot that a whale is just off the starboard bow. I look over to see a whale tail just the other side of the ship and think it may be cutting it just a little fine. Cant stop the ship so the whale would loose that fight. The whale pops up behind us and continues towards Middleton Beach. We follow as the whale goes in to Ellen Cove turns and swims toward Mistaken Island.
 
We leave them and head over to the ship that is now coming into port with the aid of the tugs and pilot. As the ship enters the channel we head back to Ellen Cove where we crank up the BBQ and Mount Barker Chickens enjoy there party.

Double Breach

Well Folks as promised thanks to Peter Woods and Sally Woods here are the pictures of the double breach, we enjoyed on Sunday afternoon. 
Check out the west tomorrow too, as Di Sinclair-Thomas Photography, May make the front page with her pictures from Sunday.

Synchronised Breaches

Well folks what a day we had yesterday.
Firstly finding 6 humpbacks in King George Sound on our morning cruise. With 55 people on board and still heaps of room for people to get a good view as the whales cruise in pairs.

Then in the afternoon cruising out deeper to firstly find a large Southern Right whale cruising west outside King George Sound. I suspect it may have been a cow looking for some space to have a baby.
Several Humpbacks were also seen cruising past. We dropped in to the seals and then as we entered the sound breaches were seen over towards Breaksea Island. We made full noise and it did not take long before we were in the area. We find 2 humpbacks and at one time we witness synchronised breaches from both whales. Of course my camera was down stairs and I didn't get it out but, several people on board did get some great shots. 

Well done Di :)
 
And I have just received a call from Sally to arrange to pick up some pictures of the double breach.

Leaving the whales and heading home we find 2 Southern Rights. They are 1 km inside the Sound so we will be looking for these guys along Middleton Beach or over towards Gull rock over the next few days.

No Cruising today because of strong winds. We hope they are gone tomorrow but the forecast is not the best.