It's been a while since I last blogged. I've been busy doing mundane things, like working, food shopping, and such, nothing worth writing about. Luckily, today changed all that, I went humpback whale watching!
Through the social networking website www.meetin.org, I signed up for the adventure, just managing to squeak in because someone has canceled, only 24 people can be on the boat. I got the call late this morning, so I had to rush to get ready, jump on the bus, then head out to the marina at Hawaii Kai, located at the southern reaches of Oahu.
I managed to make the departure time of 1pm with a little time to spare. This is a BYOB and snack event, so I bring beer and beef jerky to share (and more importantly, personally consume). We end up departing a little late, we wait for Captain Joe to arrive, owner of the boat.
The boat is filled with 20, 30 and 40 somethings, everyone is happy and looking forward to seeing some whale tail. Additionally, we'll stop for some swimming, snorkeling, and yes, peeing... There's no bathroom on the small charter boat, rather, the bathroom is the sea... Hey, the whales use it, why can't wee (ha, get it!).
The wind has whipped up today, the surf is a bit choppy, not good news for whale watching. To add to our frustration, the sky is filled with sun blocking clouds, so we are kinda cold, all standing here in our shorts and t-shirts... Oh, yes, we are just a bunch of babies, for all those who are reading this from a cold, wet, and perhaps even snowy climate. In my defense, everything is relative, remember that...
We have the boat for 4 hours and don't have to be back until 5pm, hopefully there'll be plenty of time to see some whales. We putter around a bit, passing by some really high-end, uber-expensive homes that sit on cliffs overlooking the ocean. Bobbing up and down, passengers are drinking and eating, should be interesting to see who barfs... I'm pretty good about not barfing, I love roller coasters, I even raise my hands above my head on the most scary parts, so, I think I'll be okay.
Time ticks by and no whales in sight. We see two sea turtles, but, no whales. Then, the captain's mate Larry sees a spout in the distance, verifying that yes, the whales are out and about today, despite the choppy conditions. The time has arrived to swim and snorkel. I'm a poor swimmer, but I jump in anyway, paddle around a bit, then grab a snorkel mask and look for fish. Yeah, that's right, I'm holding onto the boat's back deck. Like I said, I suck at swimming. Anyway, folks are throwing bread into the water to attract them, and for the most part, black tapia are all I see. Looking directly below me I'm guessing it's about 50 feet to the coral reef bottom. This whole experience is pretty cool, I've never done this before.
After about 45 minutes of swimming and snorkeling, everyone is ready to try our hand at whale watching again. With about an hour of sailing time left, we begin our hunt. Within about 20 minutes we are rewarded with a concert of water spouts off in the distance. We've found our quarry. We set sail in their general direction, never intending to approach too close. You're allowed to only approach something like 300 yards, you need to give them plenty of room. However, whales being whales, they go anywhere they want. If they decide to swim right to your boat, nothing is going to stop them. Well, maybe a well cast harpoon, but, we're looking to harvest pictures today, not blubber.
For about 30 minutes we feast on whale sightings. At one point a pod of them swims towards us and dives right under the boat, wow!!! All in all I think we see a number of pods, possibly 15-20 whales in all, it's really hard to say. I manage to take a few halfway decent shots, they'd be better if I have a better zoom on my camera (only goes 3x), but, I'm not complaining, ha, you can't either. Unfortunately, we don't experience a "Free Willie" moment, where one of the whales jumps over the boat. Not that we expect a humpback whale to do that, a killer whale, yes, but not a humpback.
Well, time has run out and we head back to the marina. All in all a pretty damn good outing I must say. Having only cost me $22.00 for 4 hours of boating, seeing two sea turtles, swimming, observing fish closeup and sharing their environment, and witnessing the magic and beauty of many whales going about their daily activities. I have to say, I think got more than my money's worth on this one, wouldn't you say so?
