27 JULY 2023
This morning on board our Hinchinbrook Explorer our crew reported back “heaps of whales!!” There were 8 or more that they could see in the distance breaching and tail slapping etc, but when we got closer they stopped all their tricks and went a bit shy. Still giving us good surface time, but just a little on the sleepier side.
A pod of two whales that came in nice and close to us looked to be traveling south, but then would turn around, and then back again. We couldn’t quite figure out if they were in fact on their migration back south, or just a little confused. A few dolphins around Yacabba Headlands brought our cruise to a happy close.
Our afternoon cruise we saw “heaps of whales again!” There were around 5 pods that we were watching, however our best friendly giants were a pod of two that came up nice and close to us and were body rolling and fin slapping and looked happy to have the company. These two however, definitely looked to be traveling south which generally would be a bit on the early side to start their migration back south. Good surface time all round, a few were a bit quiet and sleepy but we could still see plenty still on their northern migration.
To finish off the afternoon we had “massive” pods of Dolphins of around 50+ amongst around 4x schools of fish. In the midst of all the excitement there, we saw one lone fur seal swimming and having a play! All of our marine life we saw today were located around Fingal Lighthouse.