2009 July | Aquatic Blue Charters

Wednesday 22nd July

Whales out wider off Coolangatta today, we came across 2 humpbacks about 8 miles off shore, choppy conditions but good whales allowing us some quality time.

Thursday 23rd July

Whales out wide again today, choppy conditions, whales not overlly active today and not terribly interested in the boat, but we had two pods and everyone was happy.

Friday 24th July

Whales quiet in the water, choppy condiitons with whales still travelling north. Had a couple of breaches today and everyone enjoyed their trip

Saturday 25th July

What a blast of a day, conditions were perfect with plenty of whale action this morning, heaps of breaches and the whales came to the boat – fantastic morning. The afternoon trip was as good if not better than this morning, with one friendly humpback whale breaching 30′ in front of the boat, no one expected that – let me tell you !!! He then came really close to the boat to have a good look at everyone – that was pretty cool !!!! Overall a great day out with the humpbacks !!

Sunday 26th July

Whales once again quiet in the water, calm conditions today. We had hundreds of dolphins in the morning. The arvo trip had good conditions and all whales still heading north travelling slowly. Plenty of whale action with breaches all afternoon – great day, in a bit closer today.

Monday 27th July

Oh My God !!! what a fantastic trip, we had a pod of 3 that entertained us all afternoon with continuous breaches, coming over to the boat 4 times, in front at the sides – wow – absolute magic

Needless to say – this was a great trip

Tuesday 28th July

A beautiful day, calm sea and no wind and no swell – yes !!! The whales were sleepy again today, but one humpback decided he liked us and came over very close to the boat , he just continued swimming along beside us. We left this humpback and went looking for more pods. All whales today a bit on the snoozy side. On our way back in from the trip, we came across heaps and heaps of whales and a beautiful cow and calf just off Coolangatta. We didn’t spend too much time with her as she was just happy with her new bub, who would have been only a few days old, he was still grey. Awesome stuff.

Wednesday 29th July

Heaps and heaps of whales today, all still heading north, two whales spent 45 minutes with us. Found another three pods out wider and this was magic stuff, heaps of breaching, tail lobbing, pectoral fin slapping etc – AWESOME DAY !!!!

Thursday 30th July

Fantastic day, we came across two whales early that appeared to be a male and female engaging in friendly courtship. The male constantly breached for his girl so we were greeted with pure magic once again. The pair happily came close to the boat, diving underneath, swiming across the bow, rolling over, pectoral fin slapping and generally very happy swiming their 4 knots north. We left this pair and found several other pods madly breaching around us what a show !!!

Another great week out watching these magnificant mammals – we have just had a fantastic week of spectacular whales. They are not in any hurry yet, which is a good sign as they are not near the end of the northern migration just yet. When we start to see them moving faster then we will know that the northern migration is coming to an end, but no sign of that just yet.

No whales heading south either this week. Conditions out to sea have been pretty good, the sun is keeping us nice and warm, some days we haven’t even needed a jacket.

This has been Carol ‘the whale women’ until another day

Happy whale watching

Over the last few days we have had some of the best weather and sea conditions on the Gold Coast so far this season. The whales have been sleepy in close to the coast, not really doing very much but resting before their big journey back to colder waters.

This week we have had two humpback calves (brand new ones, born just a few days ago) that was pretty special indeed.

We came across a whale that was entangled in fish trap lines on Sunday morning, green rope was hanging loosely over his body which drapped over his tail with obviously something heavy pulling his tail down, we think it was the actual fish trap attached to him. We contacted National Parks, Fisheries and local Governments to get them to help this poor whale, hopefully they have rescued him. We will follow this up.

Plenty of humpback whales about, we have been seeing around 6 pods each trip. Yesterday afternoon, was the best trip all season, we travelled out to 8 miles and there they all were, we would have seen possibly 30 whales and the ACTION WAS FANTASTIC !!!! We had breaching whales all over the ocean, coming close to the boat, behind the boat, in front of the boat, we couldn’t believe what we were seeing, the boat atmosphere was electric. Some guests on board said they had whale watched in several places around the world and this was the best ever !! Now that’s something !!

The whales are out wider this year, so that’s where we are going to see them – another day like yesterday and many more would be pure magic !!!

We are just starting to see the young juvenilles heading back to the Antarctic, they are travelling on their own and slowly moving south, spending time just off Coolangatta just hanging around for a few hours.

Hope to see you out with us soon – the whales are just magic.

This has Carol the Whale Women until next time.

I don’t think anyone really understands JUST HOW GOOD WHALES ARE!!! Do you?

I have such a passion for these mammals that makes me feel all soft, warm and gooey !! and totally out of control when they come to the boat – unless you have been on the boat with me – you would never understand just how good this is !!!

We went our Wednesday after one week of NO WHALES!! because of bad weather and believe me, I just couldn’t wait to get out there, the whales have been non active and travelling pretty hard, they are not relaxed and this is because of the bad weather, they don’t like the smashing waves and rough conditions, it sends them out wide. But every day we have seen whales and they have been pretty good and everyone has been happy, nothing SPECTACULAR but good in anyones terms of whale watching.

Today, we had very good conditions, still those whales on their own, we had a whale breach this morning and just happy swiming along, but nothing over the top. This arvo’s trip was much better, we had a whale that breached and breached, and a couple that pectoral fin slapped, all great, everyone on board had a great time, we did !!!

This is a BUCKET LIST EVENT see you out there – everyone loves it !!!!

This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time

The weather has been wild and woolly so we have not been out to see the whales since last Tuesday (7th July) how I am missing them !!!

The whales we encountered then were magnificant as they were quite close in to Coolangatta, this is the first time this season they have been in this close. They were very happy whales in a pod of four, as they tail lobbed, pectoral fin slapped and breached and breached – how cool was this !!!

We then came across hundreds of bottlenose dolphins who were happy feeding in the distance, the pod of whales split off into two groups, we had one pod to the left, the other to the right, fantastic! Then a huge pod of common dolphins found us and boy did they put on a show, they swam under the bow, flipping up in the air, playing from side to side of the boat – this was very exciting and they stayed with us for ages – A GREAT TRIP !!

The days prior we came across of pod of males who were very intent on chasing one female all trip, you should have heard the huffing and puffing out of these bulls, they were very excited indeed and what a great show for all on board, if you had not seen this type of behaviour before from bulls chasing the cows in mating season – it was all very exciting – I loved it !! The afternoon trips have been fantastic with calm conditions and some very playful whales about 4.5 miles off the Gold Coast.

Priceless stuff!!!

The season is in full swing we are only half way through the northern migration, we should keep seeing these humpbacks filing past on the northerly migration until about mid to late August, then we start seeing the southern migration.

Hope to see you out with us soon, add Whale Watching to your Bucket List – a must do in your lifetime!!

This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until my next exciting report.

Friday 3rd July 09 – WOW!! how good is this – 3 whales breaching together !!! Oh My God !!!

Heaps of humpback whales around Coolangatta today, they all seem to be out wider this year, still close enough to see the land around 4-5 miles out to sea. We are taking a maximum of 30 minutes to find them as we leave the river at Coolangatta/Tweed Heads – just perfect really as everyone gets a fantastic ride on the boat, view the landscape – that is to die for !! and then we go whale watching – all too good !!! Today’s whales simply awesome.

Saturday 4th – found a large pod of 6 humpbacks all happily playing, one black whale in amongst the group and he was the one breaching along with one of the others. Other whales spotted further out. The pods came reasonably close, but not to the boat today.

Today – well !!! What an unreal day – words can’t describe how happy I was today. The water was calm, no wind, no swell and plenty of happy people onboard. The day started out very quiet, everyone was about to go to sleep, the whales were doing it so why not us !!! THEN watch out wake up – two whales came right next to the boat and scared the —– out of everyone – that woke them all up !!!! Then it started – the whales were on the surface, becoming active and the excitement began.

We had a pod of two very big whales swimming along, then they breached together – what a sight – we were so so so happy !!!! We had a couple of boats around the whales that we were not happy about and the whales reacted by diving and going quiet, but when they all left and settled down again we got more action. How good is it to watch whales !!! Dam good.

This afternoon – even better than this morning – we found two whales swiming along really slowly, water was dead calm and no wind. Quiet again in the water, not doing too much but just happy having plenty of surface time, we spent about 1 hour with no action, again, people sleeping on the deck, getting board, THEN away they went, we believe it was a female being entertained by a very attractive male, he breached and breached and breached around her, pectoral fin slapped, rolled over and swam in circles around her, whilst she just cruised along, spy hopping and not trying to take too much notice, after about the 20th breach she joined in and we got double breaching !!! oh too much fun – best trip of the entire year – accept of course Migaloo this was pretty dam good today !!!!

Me very happy !!!!! (does anyone read this ?)

This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until another day !!!

Thursday the 2nd July 2009 brought absolutely perfect conditions for whale watching. The entire day was a big hit with many pods of humpback whales now passing Coolangatta on their way north.

On our first trip at 9am we encountered a Minke Whale happily swiming along by itself, not too far from a pod of humpback whales. We had fantastic viewing this morning with the whales breaching all around us, camera’s clicking madly to catch that perfect shot of the humpback breaching – some people managed some beaut shots!

On the second trip at 1.30 we had more whales than the morning trip and plenty of action. Several pods joined together and we could see loads of action as they pushed and shoved each other around, chased each other all over the ocean, what a great time they were all having and we were lucky enough to see it all. The whales swam in all directions, one came up right next to the boat and gave us all a fright as he came up for air – no one could believe it - what a great day.

We dropped the hydrophone over the side to see if we could hear them singing, but they were too busy playing games with each other. At one stage, we had pods of humpbacks all around the boat, we could hear people calling out ‘there’s another pod out the back’, ‘look at that breach over there’, ‘there’s another pod of 5 out there’ truly magical stuff.

It’s getting better by the day – can it get any better? You bet and as I write this, it is now Friday morning at 7.10am and I’m just about to head out the door to do it all over again – god I love my job !!! Must go I have a very important date with a whale!!

This has been Carol “The Whale Women”

There’s been quite a bit of action with the whales off the Gold Coast in the last few days.
Most obvious is the appearance of Migaloo, who graced us with his presence on Wednesday the 1st of July.
On Tuesday we had a lot of Humpbacks cruising past but no breaches at all.
Never the less it was till exciting to see all the whales and the seas were beautiful and glassy on Tuesday.

Wednesday was the day when the great white whale made his appearance.

You can read more about migaloo here.

Contact Dan at OceanArtwork.com if you are interested in purchasing any of the photos in this gallery.

Migaloo “Big White Fella” has touched our souls today. At approximately 9.45am we were spending time with this amazing mammal just off Burleigh Heads. Migaloo travelled north with two mates and plenty of other humpbacks around 500 meters around him. 46 lucky passengers aboard our boat this morning were lucky enough to see Migaloo and thanks to Mal from Fingal Charters who passed on the information so that we could also enjoy his company.

He was AWESOME – MAGIC – FANTASTIC – UNBELIEVEABLE – I was so excited and I was jumping all over the deck with glee – everyone on board was excited too and we just couldn’t believe our luck in finding him. We first thought he might have snuck past in the dead of night, but no, he was out about 10 miles happily swiming north to the Whitsundays where he will frolick with lots and lots of lucky females during the mating season.

This is the first time he has been seen off the coast since 2005. We were lucky enough to see him off Port Macquarie on the 13th June 2005 and no one has seen him since and now here he is again and how lucky were we? Dan Howard was onboard this morning with his camera, he will post photo’s during the course of the day, take a look, Migaloo is truly magnificant and so white, he’s a beautiful sight indeed.

This has been Carol “the whale women”

PS we have been seeing lots of other magnificant whales every day too, it has been a super season and it’s just got a whole heap better, see you out whale watching with us off Coolangatta – cause we’re simply the best and you will have an absolute ball with us !!

If you would like to purchase any of the photos on this site please contact Dan Howard through his web site www.OceanArtwork.com

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