Saturday 18th – 10 pods

Whales all over the place all heading south slowly, today we found whales by 9.15am and by 10.50 we had seen around 7 pods.  Today we had double breachings, a cow and calf came close to the boat with the calf swimming in front of the boat, mum was no where to be seen, under the calf watching out for him no doubt, she wasn’t too worried.  Plenty of birds with ganets, terns, petrels, shearwaters, a little reef shark around the boat for a minute or two, a turtle and flying fish – what a day plenty to look at.

Sunday 19th – over 28 pods all day – we had two trips

The morning trip we had 5 pods by 9.15am – this is too good and so close off Cooli, we had whales all morning, one dolphin swimming with one pod of two, birds everywhere, by the 7th pod we had tail lobbing, heaps of pec slapping and then we had four pods with two whales in each pod all lined up swimming north over 9 mile reef just off Cook Island – what a sight that was – truly magic !!  The sea was calm, reasonable swell over the reef but elsewhere pretty flat this morning – great morning with loads of whales all relaxed.

The afternoon trip we had found whales around 2pm (within 30 minutes) with all whales still relaxed and not really doing much except swimming round in circles.  We found a cow and calf off 9 mile reef and the little calf starting breaching and did not stop – we stopped counting at 52 breaches and 5 porpoises and 3 pec slaps and were tired from just looking at this little one – what a treat – mum just swimming under her baby and coming up for air every 10 minutes or so, we were only in 25 meters of water, we left the pair and found more whales coming from the north, whale breaching in off Cooli and more whales pec slapping and tail lobbing – yes today was a cracker !!!  as always !!

Just had to show you these shots of our little calf – isn’t he a beauty !! and he went and went and went !!!

Monday 20th – 5 pods

A little bit of rain, but nothing to worry us, had whales by 9.30am, cow and calf breaching, another pod of two pec slapping together, these pods joined up for a short time and then split up, the cow and calf just continued on their way south. The cow and calf came over to the slapping pair and left after a short time, then another single whale came over to the slapping pair and he too left the pair giving us one big breach on his way past out to sea, so the pair slapping were attracting whales to them but sent them on their way when they arrived – funny !!!  This pair were very happy pec slapping heaps and heaps and rolling over, we left this pair and headed back south near Cooli to find another cow and calf (same one as before) and a pod of dolphins with a single whale, which we decided to stay and have a better look at – well the dolphins were just happy swimming with this single whale in little circles, going nowhere, we sat off and watched and this whale then came over to the boat and rolled over, pec slapped, swam under the boat, to the side – wow!!  This little whale certainly made everyone very happy on the boat – conditions were very calm and we hardly had any rain all day – a FANTASTIC DAY – not as many whales today as yesterday – but still heaps and lots to look at – great day.

School holidays are here and Coolangatta is getting busy with happy school holiday makers – hope to see you out whale watching as we have simply THE BEST whale watching anywhere – I don’t think you could find better if you tried – these whales have been awesome to say the least.

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

Been a few days since my last post, so get ready for whale overload!!

Friday 10th September – too rough didn’t go to sea

Saturday 11th – 4 pods by 9.20am and 13 pods all trip – PRETTY COOL

One curious whale came to the front of the boat and then left, then we spotted another two whales breaching and porpoising just off Cooli, another two pods not too far away, by 9.45am we had 5 pods of whales in nice and close to Cooli.  We had another big breach out wider off Kirra and then pec slapping, heaps of activity this morning, more whales off Kirra in closer, then we came across of pod of two whales double breaching and double porpoising – omg !! that was good but wait there’s more, we had one whale breach 50 meters from the boat – yes this was great !!!  Most whales going south or in circles today and one pod going north.

This afternoons trip we encountered 10 pods, first pod in close off Fingal Head, pec slapping continuosly, next pod off Cooli, then Kirra, then cow and calf in close to beach off Fingal they then headed out wider, heaps of activity out wider with loads of breaching, then a pod were going off with double breachings, this pod then joined with another breaching pair and it was on – we had porpoising, tail lobbing and breaching – what a great day

Sunday 12th – 8 pods

Plenty of whales about with pec slapping and tails everywhere, most pods all going in circles again today, not in a hurry to go anywhere, just cruisin!  Not very active today all pretty quiet, but still plenty of whales.

Monday 13th – 10 pods

Calm sea with quiet whales.  Whales by 9.25 off Cook, nice markings, whales not travelling anywhere, pec slapping and swimming east.  Big breaching out wide, pods in closer all splashing around, pods joined up and had some fun with pec slapping slowly heading east.  Another pod further north and heaps more pods travelling in circles.

Terns and shearwaters around today.  All whales going really slow, some going north but mostly in circles, one pod going south and not active at all.

Tuesday 14th

First pod by 9.30am, sleepy whales today had a few calves, breaching out wider but most whales were divers a few tail flicks and the odd pec slap with heaps of birds.  Very quiet whales today.

Today we had a Southern Right Whale in the Tweed Bar, she arrived quietly around 1.30pm and hung around until 3.15pm, she travelled in and out of the bar and was happy just lazing around.  With this sort of behaviour I am presuming she was looking for somewhere to give birth but after a boat coming through the bar disturbed her she took off slowly and headed north – I hope to find out if she has been here before or a regular visitor to the coast or maybe a newby to the area – however many times – we were very excited and have since found out that there have only been 10 southern rights from Coffs Harbour north since 2000 been sighted – lucky lucky people to have seen her.

Amazing enough there was no one on the seaway wall looking at her – they missed out cause she was amazing.

Wednesday 15th – 3 pods

Had whales by 9.45 but not at all active, in fact they were all asleep I am sure, so no activity to get us excited today, we had the odd breach and some double pec slapping – heaps of whales but all snoozing – oh well you get that !!

Thursday 16th – 8 pods

Very calm sea, no wind and sleepy whales again, all diving for around 12-15 minutes, only had the pods in close that would not stay on the surface for very long – so today was very quiet and no activity but still plenty of whales but all resting – oh well you get that !! two days in a row !!!

Friday 17th – 5 pods

Yeah ! the whales are awake – thank God for that !!  I was beginning to think that these whales were avoiding me !!!!  What a day today – we had 2 pods join up and didn’t they put on a show – they chased each other all over the place around the boat, under the boat, in front of the boat and everyone was beside themselves with excitement – we spent 2 hours with them and it was FANTASTIC – we had a great day with plenty of whales and plenty of birds.  I will post some photo’s of today’s trip tomorrow arvo.

The whales are now awake and kicking around – so so soo good !!!  see you out there only 6 weeks to the end of the season – OH NO !!!!!!

This has been Carol the ‘Whale Women’ until tomorrow with some photos

Wednesday 1st – around 10 pods – heaps of whales today

We have been seeing our whales by 9.30am every day – all whales are now heading south or just swimming around in circles off Coolangatta – they aren’t in any hurry just yet so a fabulous time to watch them and they have been coming to the boat heaps !!!  Today we had whales going every which way, one whale breached right next to the boat – omg!!  We had dolphins to the boat today.  The whales were diving in close so we headed out wider and came across plenty out there, after seeing around 9 pods we came across a pod of 3 whales that came straight to the boat – fantastic stuff!!

Thursday 2nd -  8-10 pods – mostly going north with the odd pod going south

Whales around the 4 miles off shore today, all seem to dive a lot today as they were yesterday, we had a cow and calf going north and the little calf breached a couple of times and Mum breached just at the back of the boat another omg !!! fantastic, dolphins to the boat again today.  Plenty of whales around today, great day out.

Friday 3rd – 1 pod – but what a pod OMG !!!!

Today we had only just left the bar and we found 3 whales straight away off Cooli and weren’t they friendly, they mobbed our boat for 1.5 hours – it was absolutely fantastic – the most amazing day with whales spending so much time looking at us, waiving at us, rolling upside down, going to the front to the back under – brilliant.  The pod had a year old calf who stayed int the background, he had a lot of barnacles on him, not sure if he wasn’t feeling so well or not, didn’t look sick just stayed out from the rest while they played with us for ages – Great Stuff – how good is this life ?!!!!!

Saturday 4th – 3 pods

A sloppy sea today and the whales wanted to dive all the time, found whales straight off Cooli, they were all chasing each other all over the place, hard to keep up to them today, we headed north and found more whales all doing the same thing – we thinkt the earthquake had something to do with their mood today, this happened last year too.

Sunday 5th – too rough did not go to sea (Fathers Day)

Monday 6th – heaps and heaps of whales about

Beautiful day with heaps and heaps of whales – very calm sea, found our whales straight off Cooli just happily swimming along all going south today.  Had a pod of 4 whales with a calf, first one we have seen going south – so we should start seeing more calves now, they are late this year.  Great day.

Tuesday 7th – heaps and heaps of whales

Whales everywhere out wide, calm conditions, plenty of birds, ganets, shearwaters, petrels, bait fish everywhere – beautiful.  All whales heading south, we headed in closer to a pod pec slapping off Banora Point, several breaches from this pair with plenty of tails – wonderful day with plenty of whales.

Wednesday 8th – over 10 pods all going south

Found them by 9.20 off Cooli, cow and calf going south, breaching whales off Cook Island travelling fast so we left them, then we came across a pod of two that were fantastic – a big BLACK whale that was a true entertainer, he breached and breached and tail lobbed, pec slapped – WHAT A WHALE !!! Another whale was breaching and tail lobbing too all joined up – had a whale party !!!  my comment this day – GREAT STUFF !!!

Thursday 9th – over 20 whales today

Very calm conditions and warm weather today, most whales  quiet and resting,  not overly active but still had some great tails and plenty of whales happy to be around us, not to the boat, but just hanging out there happy for us to be with them.  Had some pods breaching about 600 meters away, throughout the day we had whales all around the boat in different directions – no shortage at all of whales.  Another great day.

Friday 10th – too windy and rough did not go today – hence I have time to write this post.

How are the photo’s ? pretty cool I reckon – see Ariana’s face when the whale nearly touched her face with his pectoral fin – she couldn’t believe it, you can just see the whales pectoral behind the boat !!  Magic stuff indeed.

The season is only half way through and there are oodles and oodles and oodles of whales still to come through and have been every day – I can’t believe the amount of whales we have been seeing – you should come and jump onboard tomorrow – see you then.

This has been Carol the ‘Whale Women’ until next post – happy whale watching !!

Well another month gone by and here we are half way through our whale watching season – today being the first day of Spring. As I look back over the season I can only think – Wow it has been fantastic so far – can’t wait to go out today and see some more of my magestic whales!  The last two days have been great, here is what we have been seeing:

Monday 30th – 6 pods

Most of the whales are now heading home back to the Antarctic, nice and slow still, not in any hurry.  This month is always the best month for the whales coming to the boat, of which we have had several close encounters over August and coming into September I am expecting heaps more of these encounters with the calves making their way past.  Today we had whales breaching around 3.5 miles out to sea, double breaches, tail lobbing, pec slappling, tail flicks and heaps of splashing about.  We had a couple of dolphins to the boat and some flying fish today.

Tuesday 31st – 13 pods (26-30 whales)

Today was amazing, beautiful calm conditions, no wind and oodles and oodles of whales and hundreds and hundreds of dolphins, I’ve never seen so many dolphins and they were all over the place, everywhere we went there was dolphins, we had one whale playing with the dolphins right near the boat, the dolphins were feeding and chasing fish and the whale was right in the thick of them having a great time !!  Heaps of whales spread across this beautiful ocean, no other boats in sight – pure magic.  Most whales were travelling south with a heaps of them swiming in circles and not really going anywhere.  On the 11th pod of whales we struck it lucky, we had 4 whales in the pod and one of them was extremely friendly, coming over to the boat, under the boat, beside the boat, in front and he would go deep and then, there he was again coming back for more and this happened over and over whilst his 3 mates stood back and waited for him to finish!  Not often do I see only one whale in the group come to the boat, most of the time all the group will come to the boat, this one had special markings on his dorsal – we were all very excited indeed – how I love it when they come to the boat – I do so enjoy my job !!! 

There has been plenty of room onboard, we only take 50 people all up and the boat has only been half full most days – the best whale watching experience on the Gold Coast – we have no crowds, no other boats to share our whales with and we can stop and watch the whales straight away – the best!!

I wonder what todays trip will bring?  It’s a beautiful day, plenty of sunshine, no swell – awesome.

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

Happy whale spotting