Monday 16 October – baby humpback whale plays with us

We heard at dinner last night that the last swimming with whales trip was happening today. They only had one slot left which meant Rowan and I would have to share swimming turns. We ummed and ahhed whether we should go, I was quite keen as it is really our last opportunity and a few people here had told us how amazing the trips had been. We signed up and when we arrived at 8am to get ready at the resort, it was great to find out that a couple had cancelled so we could both swim. We were a bit early and much to Rowan’s delight a guest had the rugby World Cup playing on his ipad, so Rowan enjoyed watching the first half hour of the game, just as S Africa pulled ahead. He was so delighted to see on his phone later that S Africa beat France the favourites, by a squeaky one point.

It was a grey day and drizzly but at least the water was quite flat. There were 5 other guests, all from NZ and our guide Eren was from NZ too. She was very good at preparing us and let us know that we were not going to chase any whales, just swimming with them when they were relaxed. We had barely got going when we saw our first Mum and calf. We tried swimming with her once but she kept diving and moving so we left them alone. We went a lot further down the island and came across a mum and a calf with an escort. The escort kept coming between us and the mum and calf so we left them alone too. It was wonderful having someone so sensitive to their feelings and playing the patient game. We went further out to sea near a reef and there in the end we found the most obliging mum and calf. We waited ages for the mum to be happy and drop down for a snooze while the little one played. Eren said she was a little girl and very cheeky, she knew her, she soon was swimming towards us and turning on her tail at the last minute. As she swam towards us, we had to paddle backwards furiously as she weighs about a ton and a half. We had some wonderful views of her and spent ages in the water, quite eerie how quickly you would lose sight of them as they would dive down, but Eren’s eye was obviously well trained as she could pick them out long before I saw them. Thank goodness we had wet suits on as it was a very grey and rainy day. We were out there for 6 hours, very interesting chatting to everyone. The max allowed to swim in the water at a time is 4, so we would take it in turns. 90 minutes is all the time you are allowed with one whale, so we moved on and left them in peace.

Our boat for the trip with our guide Eren

Mum and babe close by

We had some lunch and watched a few more whales close by from the boat. One mum and calf were doing lots of breaching and a thing called a peduncle. In a peduncle slap the whale throws its tail sideways, slamming it into the water with a huge splash. It’s generally regarded as an aggressive or defensive action, but the babes are taught to do this as well. Both our mum and babe were doing it, so we left them in peace. All the mums are now getting the the calves to increase their stamina for the long swim to Antartica where they go to feed for the next 6 months. They also have to get them to hole their brath longer and longer to undertake the big swim. All this action by the calves is fitness training. The calves are drinking 400litres of milk a day from their mum and putting on an astonishing 40 something kgs a day, I think that is what Eren said. We saw some more whales but it was heading to the end of our time and it was beginning to rain quite hard and the wind had picked up. It was a good time to be heading home.

Babe coming up to us and turning at the last minute

We went to the main resort to pay and saw the Israeli couple who were on a mooring ball next to us in Neiafu, we had drinks with them at the Mango cafe. Poor things did not recognise us at all we obviously looked so wet and bedraggled. I straight away said we had been thinking of them as the day after we saw them the war between Hamas and Israel started. So horrific what is going on. Ruth the Jewish lady who is tiny and appears quite nervous, is not a keen sailor, but her hubby has a huge amount of bravado. I thought she would be devastated about the war, their kids are there and they have a house on a small plot just south of Tel Aviv, but she did not seem too perturbed about the situation. Afterwards Rowan and I both thought it was rather odd, maybe they just don’t want to talk about it. They are anchored at the main town Pangai, they hired a car and came up to the resort for lunch. We have to go to Pangai tomorrow to check in, we are naughty as we should have done it straight away. We are going to get a taxi there tomorrow, it is only about 15 miles away.

Evening light with dark rain clouds about

It was lovely to get back to the boat for a hot cup of tea. We had to run the generator as it was a cloudy day and the solar panels produced nothing, but this meant we also got some hot water for a shower!