Day 8: On board 'The Spirit of Adventure' - Monday, 14th Febraury
In our lecture last night, Mark explained that today would be spent travelling and the sort of things we hoped to encounter. He showed us our proposed route, but said that we would be doing a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and weaving in and outing whilst slowing to look at whales etc.
I got up at 4.30am ish and enjoyed the pre-dawn quiet again. It's so nice at this time. The only sound is that of the boat's engine as it cuts through the water. There is no other sound outside. It's lovely. And it's so great watching the moon and stars fade away to be replaced by the early morning sun! I'm going to hold on to all these vivid images because they are irreplaceable and I doubt whether I'll ever experience anything quite like them again!
In the early morning, many of assembled on deck in anticipation of whales etc. We've become quite conditioned now to know that when we hear the noise of the engines slow, we know that Captain Mike or Brian has seen something somewhere and we should have our cameras at the ready! We've also become quite good at spotting fins in the water, or whales blowing in the distance. We should all be mini-experts by the time we leave this boat!
We were out hotly anticipating something when this Humpback whale suddenly leapt out of the water right in front of our boat and took us all by surprise! It was amazing, but of course I (along with many others) did not have my camera ready and missed a great photo. Hopefully, I'll get the hang of this photography thing before long!! It didn't matter too much as there were other photo opportunities during the day. We saw more Humpbacks, Brydes (pronounced Broodus) whales and a Fin Whale which is the second largest whale in the world. Hopefully, it's a good omen for the Blue Whale which I so long to see. My brothers will be so jealous if I can tell them I've seen a Blue Whale as they too remember childhood trips to see the model in the Natural History Museum with Dad. I remember you used to be able to throw coins on its tail ( they've put a stop to that now!!) and I could never work out how anything so big could really be alive on this earth. Hopefully, I'll see it for real and it will assuage all my doubts.
Had another wonderful dinner and lecture. Had so many laughs with Sonya, Tony and the others! It's great because we all seem to share similar tastes in humour and Tony, in particular, has us all in stitches for most of the time!
I informed Rachel that I'm writing a Pam Ayres style poem about our Gray Whale encounter and she's decided we should have a talent night as a few of the others have secret talents which need to be exposed! For instance, Doug, it seems is a Morris Dancer and is keen to show us his moves!! I, for one, can't wait! It does mean that I'll have to get a move on with this poem, though, so I'm going to have a bit more of a go now.................
In our lecture last night, Mark explained that today would be spent travelling and the sort of things we hoped to encounter. He showed us our proposed route, but said that we would be doing a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and weaving in and outing whilst slowing to look at whales etc.
I got up at 4.30am ish and enjoyed the pre-dawn quiet again. It's so nice at this time. The only sound is that of the boat's engine as it cuts through the water. There is no other sound outside. It's lovely. And it's so great watching the moon and stars fade away to be replaced by the early morning sun! I'm going to hold on to all these vivid images because they are irreplaceable and I doubt whether I'll ever experience anything quite like them again!
In the early morning, many of assembled on deck in anticipation of whales etc. We've become quite conditioned now to know that when we hear the noise of the engines slow, we know that Captain Mike or Brian has seen something somewhere and we should have our cameras at the ready! We've also become quite good at spotting fins in the water, or whales blowing in the distance. We should all be mini-experts by the time we leave this boat!
We were out hotly anticipating something when this Humpback whale suddenly leapt out of the water right in front of our boat and took us all by surprise! It was amazing, but of course I (along with many others) did not have my camera ready and missed a great photo. Hopefully, I'll get the hang of this photography thing before long!! It didn't matter too much as there were other photo opportunities during the day. We saw more Humpbacks, Brydes (pronounced Broodus) whales and a Fin Whale which is the second largest whale in the world. Hopefully, it's a good omen for the Blue Whale which I so long to see. My brothers will be so jealous if I can tell them I've seen a Blue Whale as they too remember childhood trips to see the model in the Natural History Museum with Dad. I remember you used to be able to throw coins on its tail ( they've put a stop to that now!!) and I could never work out how anything so big could really be alive on this earth. Hopefully, I'll see it for real and it will assuage all my doubts.
Had another wonderful dinner and lecture. Had so many laughs with Sonya, Tony and the others! It's great because we all seem to share similar tastes in humour and Tony, in particular, has us all in stitches for most of the time!
I informed Rachel that I'm writing a Pam Ayres style poem about our Gray Whale encounter and she's decided we should have a talent night as a few of the others have secret talents which need to be exposed! For instance, Doug, it seems is a Morris Dancer and is keen to show us his moves!! I, for one, can't wait! It does mean that I'll have to get a move on with this poem, though, so I'm going to have a bit more of a go now.................
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