Simply the best whale watching trip you will ever go on !!!
Every day I am blown away by the magic of the humpback whale – every single day !!! They never cease to amaze me and I never ever get sick of seeing them – I would live out there with them if it were possible !!!
Let’s see what happened out there this week:-
Thur/Fri – did not go to sea – too rough and windy – Yuk !!
Saturday –
By 9.20am we had one pod 3.5 miles off Coolangatta, breaching whales ahead to the north and a pod coming up from behind in the south, breaching out on the horizon – so far so good!! We had two pods join up and the breaching stopped from the smaller whale, the whale that joined him was HUGE !!! They stayed together for around 15 minutes and went their separate ways. We then had a pod of 2 to the right of us, joined by the other whale and heading north at a fast pace. Topay we saw 2 albatross and terns. Great day
The afternoon trip we found a diver (a whale that dives and doesn’t surface!) straight up off Coolangatta by 1.30pm so we left him and found a pod splashing around off Cook Island, the pod had 2 whales and they were breaching, we counted 14 breaches and several porpoise movements (head out of water splashing down on the surface – like a dolphin/porpoise). At 2.45 we had two whales right next to the boat, then in front, more porpoise movement, to the back of boat and played this game for the rest of the trip, had everyone very excited let me tell you – me too !!!. We could see more whales out wide, about 3 pods out further. More albatross this arvo.
Sunday
We had 2 pods by 9.20am and one in the pod breaching heaps, by 10am they had gone quiet, go tired I think, they came up behind the boat, under the boat, in front, just having a quick look at us and moved on out to sea. We headed south could see nothing anywhere and then we spotted a pod off Kingscliff splashing around with his pectoral fins. As soon as they heard the boat they came straight to the boat, well one of them came right over whilst the other one stood off, the one that came to the boat swam upside down under the boat and we could hear him singing through the boat – I HAVE NEVER HEAD THAT BEFORE, IT ECHOED THROUGH THE BOAT -everyone thought I had a CD on !!!! We can hear them when we put the hydrophones over the side, but not just through the boat !! wow. This spectacular whale pectoral slapped on his side next to the boat, splashing us, he moved around the boat and looked at everyone – people could not believe that they saw a whales EYE !!! they said – he just looked at me !!! my god how good is this !!! An amazing day with an amazing whale – when he was finished doing his humban spotting he toddled off with his mate !!! How did this day rate – 8 out of 10
The afternoon trip we found whales off Kingscliff in close a pod of 2, they didn’t want anything to do with us so we left them. Found one whale just happily swimming along, found found heaps of dolphins with heaps of babies int the group.
Found another pod of 4 whales – not active – most probably been travelling together for some time by the time we got to the them, hence how settled they were. Another pod coming up from the south, all whales quiet in the water this arvo. Plenty of whales about. By 3.20pm they were all starting to wake up and the pod of turned into a pod of two and the breaching started, we followed this pod all the way to Surfers and they played for the entire trip, once they had woken up !! We put the hydrophones down and could hear them singing – that was awesome and everyone thought once again we had a cd on – but no it was the pair of whales that we had spent the afternoon with and they were now happily breaching and rolling over – we left them having loads of fun together - fantastic.
Monday 9am
By 9.35 found 2 pods off Coolangatta – divers again – so left them and headed south. Found 3 more pods of Kingscliff with calm conditions, then we could see 5 pods with 2 whales in each pod heading straight for us, they were off Kingscliff and we could see heaps of splashing and puffing and loads of whales all lined up heading our way – what a sight !!! They were all racing and we couldn’t believe how fast they were all travelling – 6 knots and they did this for 1 hour and 10 minutes, the lead pod just powered forward, one of the whales breached twice and the pods were now joining up with one group holding 5 whales, the other pod had 2 following them with another one of the pods splitting off and going out to sea, one pod of 2 sped out in front and left the pod of 5, the group got larger now 6. Now we had 3 groups racing on the left and a pod on the right and a pod in front. The middle pod on the left started breaching, whilst still racing forward. This group of strong males had one very large whales, we think around 16 meters at least breached not far from the boat – spectacular – then one large whale in the pod on the right breached – he too was very large – we left all pods and headed back to Coolangatta and found another pod of 5 whales off Coolangatta – oh my god – what a trip this one was – how did this one rate 8/10 – awesome stuff today
Tuesday – 9am
Found our first pod by 9.25 – pod of 2 came straight to the boat, under the boat and off they went, one other whale was chasing them and we had 4 big breaches and 35 minutes later they are still going strong. Found another pod had heaps of tails, at one stage had whales all around us. Put the hydrophones over the side – magic stuff once again !!
This arvo found one pod off Cook, had breaching and travelling around 4.5knots, left this pod and travelled south, round 2 pods of Kingscliff, one pod of 2 and one of 4 whales. Another pod breaching off Kingscliff. We stayed with this group all afternoon, at one stage we had 9 whales all together, birds following them picking up any scraps – magic stuff. We had heaps of whales all pushing and shoving and travelling fast, we reckon there was a bit of hanky panky going on here as one poor whale just kept on coming up with her head gasping for air (we reckon) and the rest were all testosterone filled males chasing her – she put up a good fight and they all travelling quick together for over one hour. A few of them tired and split off and left 5 in the group, we left them at 4 and they were still going !!! Had one dolphin today – this trip – 8/10 again
The whales have been simply amazing – they are still streaming north in droves – see you out there with the best whale watching trip you will ever do
This has been Carol ‘The Whale Women” till next time.