Daily Trip 17 December 2017
Nothing quite beats a playful little whale calf….
Written by Jax, December 18 2017
Guide Summary and Photographs
Today’s weather is what most would describe to be perfect “bed weather” with grey skies and the occasional patch of rain. Luckily for us, our clients decided to skip the bed and join us on board and they were certainly not disappointed! Dressed in our attractive, waterproof orange khaki combo, we head out to sea today, eager to check out some Southern Right Whales.
Before moving to Pearly Beach to find the last of these beauties, we had a look for dolphin along the shallows and then took a stop by our sister company. Activity was a little slow so we decided to move off but, after a few hundred metres, we got a call. Sean, one of our experienced skippers, called to let us know that they had just had a Great White Shark at Slashfin. We swiftly turned around when we received the news and head back towards the boat where we also got to see our favourite apex predator. Every White Shark sighting in our bay is treated as an absolute celebration after some pesky Orcas have been lunching on them. We feel super lucky that we got to see this guy leap out the water and heard a little later that they managed to see another, so great news all around on the shark front!
Our second attempt over The Clyde went without disruption and it was not long until we found ourselves having a look out for some whales off the coast of Pearly Beach, which is beginning to bustle due to the many South Africans which flock to the coast at this time of year. Once again, we were lucky that the search did not carry on too long, and we found a mom and her calf relaxing close to shore. Recently, we’ve seen these animals in depths of around 3m, which is pretty incredible given there size, luckily, these guys moved out into deeper water to give us a bit of a show.
It all started off with a tail going up between swells, and then, the fun didn’t stop. This little whale was not going to let us get away without giving us something to talk about, so he gave us several more views of that gorgeous little tail, which will grow to be around 5m from tip to tip. When he got bored of just sticking it out the water, he started to beat the water with it, demonstrating what lob tailing is really all about. As if this was not enough, the baby began to breach moments later. Baby mixed and matched all of these behaviours for the rest of our sightings, giving us ample views and photographic opportunities. What made this more memorable was that this bay was completely unaware that not only had he made one of our clients dreams come true, he also completely surpassed her expectations.
Our final stop of the day was at Geyser Rock. This 3 hectare island is always a show stopper due to our large Cape Fur Seal colony. Few people can imagine the sight and smell of 60 000 of these adorable marine mammals sharing a home on a rocky outcrop. It really is a spectacle to behold and something everyone should check out at least once on their visit to the area. We watched these seals for a few minutes, taking in the variety of shapes, sizes and behaviours before cruising back to the harbour.
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