Before we get started, I wanted to edit this post to add that you can view any of these photos in mega-size simply by clicking on the photo. Then hit the "back" button your browser to get back to my blog.
The captain and crew of the Spirit of Lahaina very nicely allowed me to come aboard for another whale watch today.
While we were out on the water Kelly, one of the great crew members on board, and I talked about how amazing our last trip together was. If you don't remember, we were practically held hostage by a pod of whales that were playing around and under our boat.
Kelly and I hoped for more good action today, and we were not disappointed. At the end of our trip, Kelly told me that the whales must know I'm out there since I've always had good luck when I'm aboard.
Just call me the Whale Whisperer!
I LOVE this photo. You can get a better idea of scale on how huge these Humpback Whales are. The arm on the left side of the photo belongs to a customer on board. You can see how close the whales came to the boat, and how massive they are!
It's not uncommon to come across quite a few baby whales traveling with their mothers. One pod we came across today was of a baby whale, its mother and a few males (an escort and some possible suitors). The baby whale was resting on its mother's back while she kept it close to the surface.
A little tail action.
Whales are curious too! This adult humpback whale is "spy hopping," where it is lifting its head out of the water so it can get a good look at us.
Some more tail. General rule of thumb: when the tail goes up, the whale is going down! When you see the fluke (or whale tail), the whale is beginning its descent into the ocean.
The Trilogy catamaran was our whale watching buddy today. We were often following each other to get to the whales.
This pod cruised right past them. I love how excited everyone is on their boat!
You can see the humpback in the back has a great deal of its head out of the water.
A little more tail action.
And more spy hopping.
At about this point the whales had just dove down, and the Trilogy and our boat were anxiously waiting for them to reappear. I was on the lower deck, and Kelly (who was on the upper deck) and I began talking about our great experience we had two weeks ago. As we were talking, a humpback whale leapt out the water in a full, fantastic breach (this is where they are literally throwing themselves out of the water into the sky). We both were able to see the whale leap out of the water and come thundering back into the ocean with gallons of spray. Unfortunately, neither of us caught it on camera. But it was crazy amazing. The whale was less than a hundred feet away from us. This was the second close proximity breach we saw on today's trip but neither of us have photos of either event.
That's the thing with trying to photograph whales. It's all about luck.
One last little tail before we turned home.
The video above was footage from the very end of our whale watching trip today. All the whales are diving down, so we got to see plenty of tail. My favorite part of the video is listening to everyone on the boat cheering the whales on. Whales have great hearing and they are curious. The more noise (whistling, playing whale calls and even blowing a conch shell as they do on board the Spirit of Lahaina) you make, the more likely they will come on over to check you out.
I can't wait for my next trip out to see the whales! A huge thank you to the captain and crew of the Spirit of Lahaina. You guys are fantastic!
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