Most Memorable Whale Watching Cruise This Year!
The whale watch cruise started off slowly today, with distant whales surfacing and performing long deep dives, showing us how well they can hold their breath. As we watched these elusive whales, we also discovered a variety of marine life including a Manta Ray and a Hammerhead shark. The whale watch soon changed though...
Out of the blue, a sub-adult Humpback whale surfaced quite close to the Tangalooma Jet. It repeatedly re-surfaced on the left and right side of the vessel, and vise versa. After ten minutes of this curious whale watching guests on board, we had to shut down the engines on the Tangalooma Jet, which created a very peaceful environment. The starboard gangway staircase was opened up to us eco rangers and guests to view the curious whale, at a more personal level. As we sat on the staircase, we literally got to look into this giant mammals eyes as it rested on the surface and stared at us. The whale stayed with us for 45 minutes and continued to relax and surface very gracefully in the waters surrounding the Tangalooma Jet, at a meters distance. All of a sudden, the curious Humpback began to spy hop and guests began to cry with such intense emotions. We really felt that we connected with this majestic mammal, as it was so comfortable in our presence.
It was a struggle to leave back to Tangalooma, as the whale didn't want to let us go. We had to slowly power up the engines and increase our momentum. As we departed from this extremely friendly and curious whale, it breached three times off the stern of the Tangalooma Jet. It was quite an emotional experience, as this whale wanted us to stay. Out of all the whale watches so far this season, this has been the most memorable one!