A Perfect Sea Day For Some Spectacular Sightings, 16 September 2018
A breathless, breathtaking day...
Written by Jax Bath, September 16 2018
Guide Summary.
The Southern Right Whales are still hanging out in our bay, which means that we’re travelling mere minutes before catching up with a couple of cow calf pairs. This has been truly incredible and we’re really enjoying the proximity at the moment. Our first tour of the day started off with a sighting of two sub adult Southern Rights, who were gently cruising along in shallow water. We decided that we’d move with them for a bit and slowly travelled parallel to them as they showed off their amazing silhouettes just below the surface. When they did come up, it was right next to the boat and we got some awesome views of these two next to us before catching word of dolphins in the shallows.
When we arrived, we were very happy to find 4 Indian ocean Humpback Dolphins playing in the breakers, which included a playful little calf. When this baby surfaced, it would give off a little jump, showing it’s face and giving us and giving us a couple of nice photographic opportunities. We also had one playful Humpback Dolphin bow ride, much to the delight of all on board. Once we’d spent some time with the dolphins, we head back to the whales where we found a very playful calf flipper slapping and spy hopping.
Dyer Island was the next stop of the day where we had a few juvenile African Penguins sitting on the rocks. We then went to Geyser Rock to see the Cape Fur Seals, unfortunately, there was one seal who was entangled, which we hope to help soon.
Trip 2 also had some awesome whale sightings, with us being surrounded by Southern Right Whales close to the beach. On this trip, we spent rime with mostly moms and babies who were frolicking in the crystal clear blue water. We got a few close approaches from mom’s and babies checking us out, and even had the first baby we saw put a bit of kelp on its head. We also got to see some nice flipper slapping, and some breaching and lobtailing in the distance
We found a raft of African Penguins next, with one adult and a few blues heading out to go on a fishing excursion. We got to see them nicely in the water but traveled into Sponge bay too to try to point them out on the guano covered rocks. Here, we saw mostly juveniles too.Our final stop for the day was at Geyser Rock where many seals had ventured into the water to cool down after baking in the sun.
Daily Snaps.
The houses of Dyer Island, which once served as gauno harvesting stations.
All smiles on the trip back to the harbour.
An Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphin surfaces just in front of the boat after doing some bow riding.
An Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphin Calf gives us a jump and melts all the hearts.
Baby resting it’s head just below mom’s eye, have a look below the callosity in view and you’ll see the eye.
Here you can see baby’s eye just above the flipper. The eye on the Southern Right Whale is very low down on the head, so we don’t always get a view of the eye.
This Calf carried on playing and rolling around for ages. Here he’s leaning his head on mom.
Flipper Slap.
We’ve had lots of flipper slapping all day.
Some tail action from the active babies.
This baby gave a mighty spy hop, you can even see the eye callosity.
A lone Blue.
Some juvenile African Penguins, we call them baby blues.
Giving his face a clean.
Two seals exchanging pleasantries.
A close look at a curios fellow.
A Playful little one sticks out his head and his tail.
Mom’s and babies playing.
A raft of African Penguins that we found just in front of Dyer Island.
A Bank Cormorant airing out its wings.
Two Sub Adult whales cruising next to us on Trip 1.
Tomfoolery from a gorgeous child.
Baby doing some people watching.
Close encounters.
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What species did we see today?
Southern Right Whale Southern Right Whale
Southern right whales attract thousands of visitors every year to experience these gentle giants off the South African coast.
