Trip report - Sunset Humpback Cruise Thursday 17 September 2009

Exmouth Gulf was gorgeous this afternoon and early evening as we cruised out of the marina to look for humpback whales.  We had barely cleared the heads when we saw our first whales cavorting off in the distance.  As we drove closer to them, we also got to see several whales lazily swimming along near the surface, the spray from their exhaled breath hanging in the still air.

We spent a while with a few different mellow whales, watched several different calves breach repeatedly and observed a couple of small groups of whales circling each other & doing mini-spy hops. Then we started a leisurely cuise back towards the marina. Not long into our return journey we had a big manta ray feeding at the surface so we stopped to watch it swim in a straight line one way, then gracefully flip over and swim back along the same line.

Right after the manta ray we were joined by two humpback whales who seemed curious about us. They came right to the boat, swam under us, swam around us, spy hopped, slapped their pectoral fins on the water, spy hopped some more, took big loud breaths not 5m from the boat and generally kept us glued in place for about half an hour! They caused us to stay out a little longer than we expected but what a fantastic way to end the tour!