Friday 27th – 10 pods

Plenty of whales about, cow and calf close off Cooli that didn’t want to show herself, she did not come to the surface at all and we decided to leave after around 10 minutes,as we were leaving she breached 20 foot – yes 20 foot from the side of the boat – her head was facing the boat and she meant business – she had her baby and was making sure that we knew she was there -  we knew she was there now!!  We then headed out wider.  We could see whales breaching off Burleigh Heads, then we came across a pod rolling around, spy hopping good whales.  Then off we went out wider to more whales, as we arrived we started to see several pods – the crowd was getting excited and still getting over the amazing first breach and now heaps and heaps of whales, by now there were pods all around us – We are Surrounded !!!!  ok we give up !!! now we had whales swiming under the boat and two whales BREACHED TOGETHER RIGHT NEXT TO THE BOAT – OH MY GOD !!! now this was amazing and I was impressed !!  What a trip, we also had flying fish, dolphins in the river and mutton birds

Most whales going south.

Saturday 28th – 12 pods

Sea conditions were very very flat and calm, no wind – beautiful day out to sea.

Whales going north and south today and very very quiet in the water – these flat conditions promote SLEEPING WHALES – they weren’t doing very much today – plenty of whales about.  We then spotted a whale breaching close into Cook Island so off Tony went, we had finally found a whale that was AWAKE!!!  Yippee and when we got there he was tail flicking, rolling over and then started tail lobbing, firstly on his back – the whole boat counted out load 23 tail lobs, then he turned over and started on his belly – the crowd was excited now and then he pec slapped – great day with the whales today

Sunday 29th – 2 pods

The rougher conditions today meant we had few whales in close and we had to travel out wider to around 8.5 miles and there we found two very very friendly whales that spent 45 minutes with us around the boat, rolling over, upside down, breaching and spy hopping, and double spy hopping at that, they came to the back of the boat, under the boat, beside the boat, breached next to the boat – well these two beauties were well worth the choppy conditions and all was happy.  I was too excited running around the boat to take photo’s and yelling out till my voice had nearly left me – these whales know my voice I am sure and come and say hello to me !!!  Well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it !!!  The whole boat was screaming with joy – a couple of fantastic whales today

I would have taken more photo’s but was too busy enjoying myself with my whales, but here are a couple.

Well everyday is FANTASTIC – AWESOME – SPECIAL – no matter how many whales we see – every day is a good day when you see a whale !!

This has been Carol the ‘Whale Women’ until next time.

Does it get much better than this?  I very much doubt it – still pinching myself here!!!  Look at this!

These magic photo’s were taken Tuesday 24 Aug 2010 and of course where am I – right down there in front reaching out to my whales !!!  The folk on board were stunned, amazed, in shock, they didn’t realise that whales did this and just how gentle they were – in other words they couldn’t believe what they were seeing – FANTASTIC STUFF.  We get this sort of behaviour every August – by far the best month for the whales coming to the boat – we have encourtered several whales doing this sort of thing this month already – gotta love it !!!

Back to my report – sorry get a bit excited !!

Monday 23 Aug – 3 pods today, bit cold, windy and wet, found whales but not overly active, one whale breached right in front of the boat and today we had hundreds of dolphins – great stuff

Tuesday 24 Aug – 14 pods of whales – FANTASTIC DAY with calm conditions and loads of whales – whales everywhere, all pods going south accept for a cow and calf racing north, the calf was speeding along as mum was underneath him, the calf would have been about 3 days old – keep up or get seperated from mum !!  All whales were in a bit closer today – it was on this trip that the whale above in the photo’s mugged the boat for 30 minutes – MAGIC !!

Wednesday 25 Aug – 6 pods some going north and some going south today.  Heaps of whales probably in excess of 12 and heaps of dolphins today – Great Day

Thursday 26 Aug – today around 10 pods of whales all going south and very relaxed, at one point we had whales all around the boat 12 o’clock, 11 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 1 o’clock, 7 o’clock, there’s another pod at 10 o’clock – wonderful day, everyone very happy indeed.  We had dolphins again today swimming under the bow of the boat – kids were very excited along with some very happy adults – everyone loves the dolphins

It’s a long weekend here in Queensland so I am looking forward to loads of sunshine and heaps of beautiful whales – see you out there real soon

This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time – happy whale spotting

I am so excited to show you some fabulous photos that Tony took yesterday – I am so impressed –

Just looking at these pictures gives me such a warm and fuzzy feeling, can you see in the first picture there are two whales, just to the right under the first ones pec fin, the second whale is just about to breach, more evident in picture number three and then the pair of them pec lapping – what a great afternoon, we would have seen around 20 whales yesterday afternoon, this pair were by far the most entertaining.  The morning trip we had around 30 whales and we managed to capture a whale with it’s mouth open, which I have added bottom left, a bit hard to see, but his mouth is open, a rare sight indeed – most impressive I thought !!  Well done Tony.

We have been seeing oodles and oodles of whales, heaps now going South and still some going North, they are just starting to relax in the water around Coolangatta, so we should see more whales coming to the boat over the next week.

We had a new cow and calf again yesterday, she was very very quiet in the water and heading North, the calf was actually quite dark in colour, so not a newby, but probably a week old due to it’s colour. 

Definately no shortage of whales, each day we are seeing between 6-20 pods on any single trip, that’s in excess of 12 whales per trip upto around 30-40 whales in a day – fantastic stuff.  We put the hydrophones over this week and could hear them singing, everyone was blown away by their music.  On some trips we have been surrounded by pods of whales, no one really knowing which way to look they were everywhere – too good !!!

We had a last year calf with it’s mum on Friday, weather was a bit rainy, but stopped enough for us to get out on the deck and watch the pair travel reasonably close to the boat heading south.  Most of the pods on Friday were going south and one pod going north breaching madly off Cook near Fingal – another great day out with the whales.

A great week and now looking forward to some great weather this week, Monday may rain, but the rest of the week is looking pretty good.

This has been Carol the ‘Whale Women’ until next time – happy whale spotting

Friday 13th – around 5 pods of whales morning trip

Today we had St Josephs College enjoy plenty of whale action, we had one pod of 5 whales travelling north, only young whales not at all active, just happy swimming along, we stayed with this pod for ages as we had no other whales anywhere.  Gradually we came across another pod about 500 meters to the right, a cow and calf behind us, very new calf, still white.

Had another 2 pods on the way back into Cooly

Friday 13th – 4 pods on arvo trip

Found whales pretty early, another cow and calf heading north just off Cooly, not at all active, in fact we left them 10 minutes after we found them as the calf was only a few days old.  The next pod had 2 whales that split up and went their separate ways, one of them came to the boat and tail dived under the boat.  The next pod of 2 whales was breaching and going north.  We had dolphins everywhere, hundreds of them.  We put the hydrophones over and could hear them talking to each other and in amongst this we could hear the whales – pretty cool stuff.  We could hear over the radio that the Surfers Paradise boats had a minke and new calf – fantastic to see the minke’s around.

Saturday 14th – OMG what a day!!!

The sea was dead calm with a reasonable swell, easy to handle no wind, we headed out and came across a pod of 5 whales swimming in circles, well, they heard the boat and came straight over to the boat, we GOT MOBBED !!! well you should have seen me running around, yelling out, screaming with joy as they came to the boat several times over and over and over, we spent one and a half hours with these five whales continually coming to the boat, swimming under the boat, rolling over – absolutely FANTASTIC morning – has to be noted as another favourite day for this whale women !!!!

The afternoon trip was so different, the sea turned sloppy and no whales mobbing the boat, we found a couple of whales that really didn’t do too much, still good, but not as good as this morning – one of those days – you should have been here this morning !!!!  that’s not funny !!!!

Overall a fantastic day of whale watching – unreal stuff – money just can’t buy this sort of stuff.

Sunday 15th – one pod of cow and calf

The sea was sloppy today but we had a beautiful cow and her brand new calf – so many calves have been seen this year around Coolangatta that have just been born – what a real treat these babies are, a rare sight and something that most people, well nearly everyone, would never ever see, so how lucky are you to see a brand new humpback calf with it’s mum – pretty special I reckon.

Monday 16th – around 16 pods – OMG someone opened the gate and let them all out this morning !!

Came across our first pod around 9.30am, one whale going north close to Cooly, very calm water and this whale was a diver !!, left him and headed out to the horizon, 2 whales in this pod, another pod behind us, another one in front breaching, another pod to the left, another pod to the right another pod over there – oh my !! pods absolutely everywhere!!  BUT !! guess what they were ALL doing – SLEEPING !!! every single pod were in rest mode and doing absolutely nothing, but such a wonderful sight to see so so so many whales.  We put the hydrophones over the side and we could hear them singing – great stuff!  We then spoted another pod closer into Cooly breaching, so off we went, you beauty there’s a pod AWAKE !! and there he was breaching his little head off all by himself – great little whale

Tuesday 17th – around 5 pods

Today was a great day, we had a nice sunny day, a little wind and a slight chop on the sea, we came across our first pod off Fingal Head, 2 whales breaching going in circles, heaps of tails and breaching from this pair, they swam in circles all trip, they were going nowhere today just happy swimming off Cooly all day, they entertained a few other pods, who came in to see what was going on and then carried on their merry way, heading south, this pod was not active at all, the original pair were still breaching and going in circles – patrolling the area !!!  Several other pods in the area, other pods out wider going north breaching, so off we went to see what sort of mood they were in and we came across a beautiful whale with some fabulous white markings – very special and we got some great photo’s of which I will put up here – beautiful whale!!

We also heard that Migaloo was off Cairns today and expected to stay around the area for a few weeks, we normally see him going past us late September – the ears are now to the ground waiting for more news on our famous big white fella! 

Some great whale watching this week with whales going North and South, still a lot of whales going North and stacks of new babies going north, should start to see the calves from the north coming past within 2-3 weeks.

How I love the whales, my job, our boat and the fantastic people that join us to see the whales, I don’t think they quite believe just how mad I am out there – I have them all screaming their lungs out with excitement and don’t they love it – the men seem to really get into the yelling out to the whales more than the women – love it !!!!

This has been Carol the ‘Whale Women’ until next time – see you out there with the whales.

I am amazed that I have let two weeks go by since my last post – I must admit I have been rather busy with whale watching every day and I lost my script book overboard with all my valuable notes in – I was not impressed.  Lesson learnt, take notes daily and bring back to office !!!!  We have been seeing whales every single day, we are now starting to see them slowly going back – which means the season is half over, the odd one or two, not going south in droves just yet.

Monday 26th, Tuesday 27th – lost notes – but we had whales I know that for a fact.

Wednesday 28th, Thursday 29th – no trip with heavy rain and wind

Friday 30th – lost notes – but had whales

Saturday 31st – no trip too rough and windy

Sunday 1st – lost my book today but I remember what happened – how could I forget this day – this morning was a nice trip, lovely conditions and plenty of whales about, we had one Cow laying low in the water, very still, we first thought the whale may have been injured as we had been told by VMR (Volunteer Marine Rescue) that the whale had been sitting in the same spot for a long time and it may have been injured, as we approached slowly we could see she had a calf and a sigh of relief came across me – we left her to enjoy her calf and went out to more whales.

The afternoon was one special trip – we enjoyed the company of a very friendly Cow (mum) with her BRAND NEW CALF this calf would have only been hours old, still white and possibly the same cow that we came across on the morning trip that had not moved – we did not take any photo’s of the cow in the morning so was unable to say for sure if it was the same one.  To our delight this Cow came straight over to the boat with her new baby – oh my god – how cool was this – I have seen this several times before and this time was by far the very best I have ever seen – she actually put the calf on her nose and bought her baby to the boat, we nick named the calf “Cooly” and she not only did it once, but twice, the next time she came to the boat with the calf, the calf was rolling over and playing beside the boat – everyone onboard was beside themselves – it was a magical experience and probably one that all these lovely people will never see ever again – exceptional !!  We took footage of our baby and it made it on the Chanel 7 news on the Monday night.  Here is a photo of “Cooly” a 2.5 meter Humpback Whale off Coolangatta

How beautiful is this?  Absolutely beautiful, you can see on the middle photo scrape marks that have been left by – we think – a shark that has attacked the calf, on the other side you could see actual teeth marks – one lucky calf – maybe we should call him/her ‘lucky cooly’  A memorable day indeed.

Oh we did see heaps of other whales that afternoon – but they seemed to get lost in our excitement for Cooly !! Funny about that !!

Monday 2nd August heaps of whales

Had whales by 9.15am, cow and calf straight off Coolangatta, a couple of days old just moving along slowly north, we left them at 9.25.  Had pods out wider, so we went for a look found 3 pods on the 50 meter mark, tail dives.  Had more pods coming from the south  Flying fish today and found 2 other pods happily going North a bit quicker today - not a lot of action today compared to yesterday, plenty of action out wider later in the trip

Tuesday 3rd August – heaps of whales

Came across 7 pods around 5.5 miles off Cooly, at one stage we had 5 pods of whales all in a line across the left hand side of the boat all in a line – wow !!!, there were pods everywhere – we were surrounded, they swam across the front of the boat had heaps of tail lobs and flukes – great day out with the whales today

Wednesday 4th August – sleepy whales today

We had 4 pods but took ages to find them this morning, found our first pod around 10.25am, my goodness was getting a bit worried that we wouldn’t find them today, but we came good in the end, all whales asleep today, not active at all.

Thursday 5th August – heaps of whales today

Found our first pod by 9.20am, 3 whales off Fingal, then a pod of 2 heading south in calm water, just happy swimming along nice and close to Cook Island.  Found another pod around 9.50 off Cook Island pectoral fin slapping, another pod out wider, another pod going north a mile off Cook, another pod off Kingscliff around 10.25 breaching several times and another pod behind this pod. Plenty of whales about, by 10.55 we had breaching whales near the boat and another pod breaching not far off, around 8 pods today with around 16 whales – good stuff.

Friday 6th August – 3 pods

Found our first pod around 9.25am another pod off Cooly on the 50 meter mark, whales breaching and pec slapping, tail lobbing, not really travelling anywhere, just hanging around playing, we enjoyed porpoising and then they disappeared.  Another pod appeared and breached right in front of the boat around 10.30, we had several lazy breaches from this pod who continued to go in circles, there were 3 whales in the pod.

Saturday 7th August – plenty of whales about

The afternoon trip we had around 4 pods, one off Burleigh and another pod not too far away, not overly active from these three pods, had one other pod with 3 whales on the 50 meter mark and they came close to the boat

Sunday 8th August – heaps of whales

Found our first pod by 9.25, 3 in the pod straight off Cooly, heading south, not active to start with and then by 9.55 they had woken up and became active with breaching.  Left his pod at 10.10 and headed off to breaching whales to the north who were once again heading south, 2 in this pod.  Had another pod out wider breaching, one whale in the pod going north, heaps of tails.  Next pod came straight to the boat, swam in front of boat, two whales going north, another whale joined in and there were 3 in the pod by 11.15am.  Another pod in front of these ones goiong north and on our way in at 11.15 we had another 3 pods all within 200 meters of the boat – great morning.

Afternoon trip on Sunday we came across a cow and calf going north off Cooly, the calf was only a couple of days old, didn’t stay long with them once we realised she had a calf.  Had huge pod of dolphins today, busy feeding and did not come to the boat.  Another pod of 2 whales going north by 2.20pm on the 50 meter mark again, moving quickly and diving, left them at 2.30, had another pod out wider 3 or more whales, another 2 pods going north.  Another pod further south off Kingscliff breaching – 2 whales, another 2 pods with 5 whales, at one stage had 4 pods across front of the boat, one breached right next to the boat in a pod of 3 - plenty of whales today. – great day

Monday 9th August – plenty of whale action today

Found our first pod of 9.20am, cow and calf straight off Cooly, we first spotted the whale and started to make our way over there and she breached fair out of the water and she was HUGE !!!, we had no time to take photo’s and she breached straight away now close to the boat, we couldn’t believe how big she was and then she started tail thrashing, we then saw the calf, what a good mother she was protecting her calf and we backed right away and let her be and she was then happy, we left her altogether off Cooly happily swimming north with her baby.  We had flying fish today.  We headed out to a pod out wider that was breaching – well we found magic out there – we had 6 pods of whales all around us – in front to the left to the right behind us – how exciting !! they were quite active.  By 10.10 whales were everywhere, we had tail lobbing, pec slapping , breaching whales coming to the boat and today we had DOUBLE BREACHES from one pod and several DOUBLE BREACHES at that.  Had another pod going south out wider, our double breaches stopped, must have been tired and we went to another pod breaching.  Came across another pod off Cooly and Burleigh with tails and breaching.  Another pod further south breaching and another pod breaching out wide – another great day

Tuesday 10th, Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th – too rough, windy, raining – awful did not go to sea.  Plenty of whales still going north as I watched from the headland.  I will put some more photos up on the webpage today.

The whales are just starting to go south and plenty still going north, had heaps of babies being born around the Cooly area and so far it has been a sensational season.  We have a busy weekend ahead, hope the weather holds now right through the rest of the season – not too fused on sitting on the headland when I could be out with my whales !!!

This has been Carol the ‘Whale Women’ until next post.

Monday