Mum and baby (to the left) humpback

As we sailed into the open sea, we were officially allowed to whale watch. The whales are strictly protected, only so many licenses are given out to selected boat operators, so that the whales are not inundated with trips. They cannot be disturbed in the vicinity of the islands, and in the open sea a boat is not allowed to cross the path of migrating whales, nor sail closer than 100m to the whales. The best way to see them is to shut the engines off 100m away from the whales and hope they come over to see you!! We were told to look for tell-tale signs that whales are about, apparently the splash made by a breaching whale (where they haul themselves out of the water and flip backwards) can be seen for miles – as you would expect when a 40 tonne mammal decides to do somersaults in the sea! Another sign is the mist/spray from their blow when they come to the surface for air. It seemed to take ages before we saw anything, everyone on the boat desperately hoping that the trip wouldn’t be a wasted one. When someone shouted, everyone jumped up and raced to see what appeared to be a very distant splash of water. The boat sailed in that direction and we got a slightly better view of a mum and baby whale in the distance. They opened up the front of the boat when we stopped so that we could get closer to them. I took some photos, but was all too aware that they looked like little black specks in the distance – I made a mental note to buy an additional zoom lens for my camera as people stood beside me with humongous telescopic lenses. These whales weren’t playing, and if they don’t want to come near the boat, then the operators don’t pursue and harass them (which is good). Everyone trooped back to their seats and we returned to the game of whale spotting. (The fab whales in the piccie are from later in the day).