August 21, 2012
One yacht club perk that we did not anticipate was the proximity to whales in the lagoon! In particular, we had a mother and calf who made several appearances not too far from our boat.
We soon realized we had a sort of warning system when they were about (at least in the afternoon). All we had to do was look outside and if there was an assortment of dinghies, canoes, paddle-boards, power boats, and perhaps a sailboat or two all grouped up, they were probably following whales.
The first time we saw this, we jumped in the dinghy and went check it out. We followed along, but of course we were worried: was all this harassing the whales? We followed and watched as mother an calf were amazingly close to one dinghy, and then another dinghy. Some of the local guys were very close in their canoe and got in the water with masks and snorkels.
We stayed with all this for about 15 minutes, and we noticed the whales did not seem bothered at all. The calf played and even breached at one point. Mom would surface, then they might both dive but would surface not far away. When she decided she was done with all of us, she and the calf simply headed out of range, and the band of boats dispersed. I had the camera for this, but unfortunately it didn’t focus properly so my footage is blurry. Plus, it’s very hard hold and camera and try to actually see the whales at the same time.
The second time we saw the congregation of boats, we had some friends over. Rich noticed a group of boats starting to gather and said, “I think we have whales.” We jumped into our friends’ dinghy and headed over.
I was dismayed to realize that in our haste to go I had forgotten our camera, but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. On this day, we had great whale watching of a mom and calf, sometimes right next to the boat! It was incredible, and because I didn’t have a camera, I was fully in the moment. I realize you have to be careful with a camera, because you can end up recording events but not living them. So, we have no video footage or pictures from that day, but I think back on it and remember the whales, not my struggles with the camera.
After looking over the blurry, erratic, Blair-Witch-style video of our first outing, Rich has managed to extract this picture. (I won’t hold my breath waiting a call from National Geographic.) -Cyndi
