A Whale of a Tale

About this same time of year last year we signed up, with high hopes, to go on a whale watching cruise.  Our hopes were maybe a little too high which left us with some disappointed feelings when we saw only a fleeting tail or fin or poof of water.

Not to be defeated (or maybe we're slow to learn), we signed up again this year to see some whales.  We did learn from last year that bringing the kids with us was not a good idea.  Hours of staring at water for a quick peak at a whale fin was not their idea of fun.  Nor mine, since Emmy and London apparently have a fear of boats, and apparently continuous body contact with me was the only way to soothe that fear.  So this year our friend Liz graciously agreed to host the kids while Stevie and I went out on a whale hunt (for photographs only, thought I might need to clarify that since we are in Japan...)

Although the weather was looking forboding in the morning, we still headed out and were pleasantly surprised to find patches of sunshine in the middle of the ocean.  That makes all the difference around here because the minute the sun hits the water the color turns from a steel gray to an amazing blue that defies description.

Ready to go!

Another difference this year is that we went out with an American boat and crew so we were actually able to understand what was going on!  The morning started with us catching up to a group of Japanese tour boats just off the Karamas islands during which we were treated to our first whale sighting.  I think at this first stop it was more exciting to see how the boats were pitching in the choppy water, especially when the crowd all moved to one part of the boat!

The second location we headed to yielded us a great opportunity to see a pair of wales together with an awesome double fin show and double tail show!  (Note the color change of the water, this is what sunshine does!)

Finally, we broke off by ourselves and the captain found a pair of humpbacks frolicing and playing like I imagined we'd see.  They were breaching and splashing, although it was really hard to get a picture of the breaching so I only have pics of the splash...

This one was taken by my friend Maureen's husband when they went out last weekend...

Wish I had taken this!

These two big guys (or gals, couldn't be sure) were hanging out just below the water and then would come up for air, flop around, and even at one point, one of them checked us out.  This is called "spy-hopping" when they stick their heads strait of the water to see what's going on.  What a neat thing to see in person!  They finally got within about 20 feet of the boat and then disappeared.  By this point, the waves were beginning to get a bit precarious so we had to head back to the dock, but it will definitely be a trip I'll remember for a lifetime.

That's a fin!

Look how close they were to us!