Republic Dominican
The DR
The Dominican Republic.
Thursday 1st Feb
I have arrived! And settled into my hotel – which is lovely. Very like an African Safari lodge.
My driver was waiting at the airport, which is always good and off we went. I met Shirley, also on the trip, whose driver didn’t turn up, so we took her as well.
First impressions were that it is like so many other island nations. Caribbean, South Pacific, North Pacific. Bantams, multiple people on motor bikes, cars all over the road, cattle wandering along the road. Haven’t seen rubbish burning yet.
And the place is so lush. Green and jungle-y. Quite hilly.
I was the only trip guest at this hotel, but Ted was here, our expedition leader, from the High Arctic trip. As in “we love Ted, best excursions ever!” So Ted and I headed off and met Shirley for dinner at a Swiss restaurant. Well, run by Swiss ex-pats and set up like a chalet, with fondu. But Dominican food was to be had.
Friday 2nd February
After a leisurely start and a breakfast with lots of chatting I organised a taxi for a day tour. The taxi finally arrived at 11am, so off we set to collect Shirley from her hotel. I negotiated $100 from now till 6pm. We drove for quite some time with me enjoying all the sites. As we passed the airport I said “You didn’t go to Hotel Coral Blanco for Shirley”. Damn. We turned around and headed back – much to the drivers disgust. Then he told me that as we had to go back the cost would now be $150US. “No” says I. $100. On and on. “No! $100 or we get out now”. “$125 then.” “No. $100 or we get out”. Eventually it was “OK $100”.
So off we went ‘to all the touristico spots’ We wanted to go to ’27 Waterfalls’ that many told us to go to. So off we went.
Driving is interesting. The painted double yellow lines on the middle of the road must have some significance – but I have no idea what it could be. It certainly cannot have meant stay on one side of the road! Cars were everywhere. All over the place. And trucks – all of which had super bright LED lights flashing all over them. And of course the scooters. Everywhere. Most with three people. No helmets, no apparent road rules. And of course carrying a selection of things from ladders to large gas cylinders.
We went to an amber museum and factory. We were ushered in my ‘the owner’. “It is free to enter and if you like it, you might like to give me a tip”. After looking around Shirley bought a $120 pendant. He still followed us out to the car with his hand out.
We eventually made it to 27 Waterfalls. Up in the hills. As we approached the car park, we wondered why so many people were strutting around in just their bikinis and boardies. Only to find out that it was not actually a series of waterfalls to view, but in fact a 2 hour walk to falls 1 to 7. But not just any walk – a walk in your swimmers. In the water shoes you had to hire, the life vest and the helmet you had to hire. There were a few swim through along the way. Then the falls. Then one you sat down in and washed down to the next level. Onto falls 2, and so on.
So not idea for us tourists in normal clothes with big fancy cameras etc. Would have been a wonderful experience if we were appropriately clad, with waterproof cameras as and with a lot more time. But alas we had none of that – so no falls for us.
We had heard of a chocolate factory so off we went. It was pretty cool. A tiny set up in a tiny house sized building. They employ 22 workers over a few shifts.
The trees were covered in cocoa pods. People opened the pods and extracted the seeds. Others peeled them with paring knives. The seeds were then cracked and put through a press that separates the oil for the cocoa pulp. The oil is used to make skin creams and the like, and the pulp is dried into cocoa powder. It is then mixed with butter to make chocolate.
Next was Teleferico cable car to the top of the enormous Pico Isabel de Torres, 800m above the city. Hugely steep.
The cloud rolled in and out but we did get some spectacular views. And the jungle vegetation up the hill was fantastic.
At the top was ‘Christ the Redeemer’. Who knew there was one here as well. Complete with aggressive “tour guides”. Only $25 if we engaged one at the bottom. Special price for us.
Imagine our surprise when they were $10 at the top. We still didn’t need one.
And plenty of people to use your camera and take photos for a tip. They knew just where to stand you and how to position you for a series of photos.
The clouds rolled in and out and made things look great.
We saw many great thing on the drive. Cowboys, very ugly goats, many mules! A surprising number of people riding little horses. And of course scooters pulling off death defying feats. And roadworks – building culverts mainly. But lord knows they needed those road works.
Then into Puerto Plata to see Fort San Felipe.
Beautiful. With an amazing amphitheatre. I would love to go to a concert there. Cut into a hill under one fort and a light house, overlooking another, with sweeping views of the coast.
The sky was an amazing range as we got back at 6pm. A number of others had arrived for the trip, so we gathered them up and headed into Caberetta, in the other direction for dinner. And OK, today’s taxi driver wasn’t the worse. Tonight’s was!
But dinner was spectacular. At a restaurant on the sand, with the super moon making the breaking waves glow bright white – like under a blue lamp at a disco.
And the food – WOW. A big pan of prawns cooked in a glorious sauce with curry and served with paste. Oh my! Wine, a few tomato salads and amazing bread and fresh tomato dip. $25US each. So good.
Then home to bed. Tomorrow we board the ship. But not until we have a morning with a bit more site seeing.
The weather had been amazing. 25ish and great. Not burning hot and not too humid. Imagine me saying 25 was good. The evening are brilliant.
Enjoying Republico Dominica. Everyone is pretty aggressive for a tip and had no hesitation in telling you that they deserve a tip, or how much they deserve. They will take things from you then want a tip. Like the guy who took my trolley from me at the airport. I only got it back after telling him a number of times that I had a driver. As we were loading the taxi, a man came up and lifted one of Shirley’s bags. From the trolley to the ground near the boot of the car. Then demanded a tip.
Still lovely though.
It rained over night. Started at about 10pm and bucketed down until about 5am. So much rain, No wonder it is so lush.
Saturday 3RD FEB
In the morning I went into the shops with Ted and Jeff (another guest) to buy some groceries for Ted’s cocktail of the day. Firstly, we stopped at a fruit truck and bought pineapples, all the limes and a few other things. Then moved onto the supermarket where we bought another seven kilos of lime, mint, more pineapples, coconuts, then heaps of rum, vodka, etc. Much fun looking around the supermarket.
When we got back a group of us walked towards lunch. We were aiming for one place but found another on the way. A small one-person café.
We decided to get shared plates and go the chicken in red wine sauce. Someone asked about chips – she didn’t have any but rang the local supermarket. Not much later a guy arrived on a scooter with frozen chips. It took about an hour for her to cook it and we all sat chatting and watching birds. Food was great, even if it was the white sauce chicken.
Awesome.
We walked back to the hotel then all sat around chatting, then jumped into taxis and headed off to the ship.
About this trip.
It is a week on a live aboard boat snorkelling on The Silver Bank with Humpback Whales! My favourite. The trip is run by “Cheeseman’s Ecology Safaris”. A small company started by Ted’s parents, running amazing trips to amazing parts of the world. Kenya, Galapagos, Tanzania, Antarctica, Franz Josef Land and everywhere in between. Super ethical and amazing. Ted was the super guide on my Franz Josef Land trip.
The boat is “Turks and Caicos Explorer 11”. 135 foot long and 20 passengers. Cheeseman’s charter it so their rules apply. Things like no smoking at all on the trip. Wonderful.
We boarded the ship and were shown our rooms. Our room was down on the lower deck. Not the very lowest. That was for crew, engines etc.
Our room was tiny. Two bunks, a chest of draws and about 1.5 square metres of floor space. Well designed and comfortable beds. The bathroom was really tiny. Really tiny.
The spiral staircase was ‘interesting’.
We then had ‘muster’ – lifeboat drill, and were told many safety things like how to use the fire extinguishers, what to do if we saw a tender escape and more.
We were not leaving the dock until around 11pm, so people jumped off the ship and made last phone calls and last internet.
Tied up to the pier it was very sloppy. Terrible or lovely. Depending on your sea sick metre. I thought it was lovely! Last week they had big storms. The harbour was closed for two nights, the boat couldn’t get out, with huge waves breaking buffer buoys and ropes. Many people were sea sick and slept on decks and in the lounge room. How embarrassing. Sea sick while tied up to the wharf. 🙂
Sail away started with us picking up the tenders. Two fibreglass 26 foot purpose designed boats with two by 120 hp motors each. They were in a different berthing at the pier. To get them, staff – swim to work. Off the back of our boat and swim to the tenders. They then bring them over – put on the radar reflectors and more, then tether them behind the “Mothership”. Then they jump in and swim back to the boat.
And off we went to Silver Bank. A seasonal whale sanctuary. 100 miles away. Still in Dominican Republic waters but close to Turks and Caicos. We had big seas. Only 5 foot but ‘really short’. So very rough. Some people slept in the lounge.
Sunday 4th
We got to ‘The Bank’ at about 10am. I spent a long while up on the bridge. Chatting with the captain and watching whales. So many whales. SO MANY!
The Silver Bank is a whale sanctuary for around four months of the year. It is a patch about 100 miles from the Dominican Republic in line with Turks and Caicos. It’s a large area surrounded by rock reefs with many others scattered throughout. Hundreds. Shallow and protected.
Whales have been coming to this area every year for up to 10 million years. Can you believe that! They spend the winter months up north – from Maine to Greenland and even Franz Joseph Land where they feed. And feed lots.
In the summer they go to their breeding grounds – always the same ones. They do not eat from the time they leave the north until they get back. They come down here to the relatively calm, warm waters to give birth and to mate. They also believe they come for a spa treatment where the diatoms, the yellow orangey stains you see on flukes die off and cleaner fish give them a tune up!
The area has been terribly damaged by the fishing industry. There is very little coral remaining. Many ‘Coral Heads’ – what we would call ‘Bommies’ or reefs, but all bare. Dynamiting was the preferred method of fishing. Most of the fish are therefore gone. The fishermen hated the whales, blaming them for diminishing fish numbers. Even though they didn’t eat!
So 35 years ago and group of people lead by Oswaldo, started partitioning the Dominical Republic government to declare it a marine sanctuary. They successfully finally had it declared a whale sanctuary for the breeding season. Yay for them.
They also set up laws and permits to allow three live aboard boats in during the season for ‘soft in water encounters’ and some research permits. Very strict rules about what can and cannot be done.
Ted’s other passion and other string to his bow is a project he started called ‘Happy Whale’. It’s a citizen science project. If you take a photo of a fluke – a whale tail anywhere the world, you send the photo to Happy Whale with the date and location. Ted then enters it into the database. The aim is to match whale photos of flukes. Ie One whale seen in Alaska in 2010. Off California in 2014 and in Hawaii in 2015. The again in Alaska. The research is helping to get so much information used in such things as justify why the crab industry should not have lines out in certain areas in certain months.
So we are all obsessed with fluke photos. I have now logged photos in Franz Josef Land, Greenland, Eden and now Silver Bank.
If ‘my whales’ are ever seen again I will be notified and will be contributing to science and the well-being of whales.
We reached our mooring by noon and set up.
We had a meeting, telling us how the approached them, how things would be done and were put into groups.
People who weren’t really confident did a snorkel test, then off we went in the tenders.
The tenders were great. Purpose built with great seating. A splash rail just above the water line that deflected splash. Comfortable benches and a great dry front area for cameras.
To get into them you sat on the deck at an opening on the side of the boat. They when the boat bounced up with the swell you stepped down – people taking your arms and helping you in.
We then spent a few hours looking. There are many different whale behaviours. The crew respect the whales and ‘listen to what they say’. We saw a few “Go and Blow” groups. They were not interested in us and headed off. Some we saw close, others from a distance. If they were travelling, we didn’t go to them. If they were hanging around in the same place, we would go and look.
The WOW. We snorkelled above them. So huge! Sleeping on the bottom for up to 45 minutes. Just lying there perfectly still.
AMAZING!
We then went back to ship – all buzzing with excitement. After a shower and gear sort out we had Ted’s cocktails up on the top deck. There was a warm breeze, sunset, and Pina Colada’s! A damn fine day.
After a lovely dinner and a talk, we all headed off to bed and slept well. The wind was still up so there was a bit if a sea. So a gently rocking bed was fantastic.
Monday 5th Feb
WHAT A DAY
We were out in the boat at 8.30 and off we went in search of the Humpback. We were in ‘Escort’ with Denise, Brant and Chris.
The tenders are named after whale rolls. A female is accompanied by an “Escort”. A male hoping to win her favour and be the one to mate with her. He will be quite protective of her and keep others away. Including our tenders.
The other tender is “Challenger’. Other males will seek out the female and try to muscle the escort out.
Often a number of males arrive and try to do this. This is called a “Rowdy Mob”. Apparently they can be very exciting to watch – with weaving, ducking, pushing, even hitting. They believe that this is one of the reasons that Humpback have devolved into the heavy set beings they are. Most other whales are very stream lined, but Humpbacks are chunky.
We saw heaps of whales. Many were in the “blow and go” mode and not interested in us. They would come to the surface and blow then shoot off on their merry way. Others would be moseying along and showed that they were not interested in us by changing direction or by continuing along.
When we saw whales blow, in a reasonably close distance of around a few hundred meters, the boat proceeded towards them, skipper with stop watch in hand. The staff know from the blows and backs if it was two adults or mother and calf.
Two adults may go down for a long sleep of 30 minutes. If it was a calf, the mother might sleep for a period and the calf will come up to breathe ever three minutes or so. The best for swimming with them is with a mother and calf.
We followed two adults for a while who were interested in us. Brant (one of the staff sipped into the water and went for a look). He was about 10 metres from them when one did a huge breach! AMAZING. It was awesome to see Brant’s excited reaction. Double fist pump and the hugest smile. Makes me happy to see the professionals being so into it.
After not too long we found a mother and calf. Brant went in and gave the OK. We all ‘slipped’ into the water and went to him. We slip in like seals. You lie on your belly and slide into the water with a dive and very still legs. No splashing or banging. Most of us were not quite as seal like as Brent – but pretty good.
Below us was a huge humpback. With her calf – that was only a month old – tucked under her pectoral fin. The babies don’t have very good buoyancy control so the mums will often hold them down. When baby was ready to breath up it came. Right past us. It had a breath and a good look at us, then headed back down.
After a number of repeats of this, the mum woke up and came up to breath. Mind blowingly amazing. We were close to these amazing creatures. They looked at us, they allowed us to be near.
After a while she moved on – not very far, then would go back down for a sleep.
We were able to repeat this process three times. Three swims with a calf and mum!
After each time we would return to the boat and hop in. Some like seals just popping over the side. Others, especially me, clambering up the ladder – more like Manatees then seals!
Later we came upon two adult. This was so good. We got really close to them. And could see so much. The water was a bit clearer here so you could really see the detail. The barnacle scars all over their faces. And the tubercles – the lumps on their faces that spurt a single hair.
They swam around a bit, circling us and looking. Phenomenal. We were in the water for quite a long time with this pair. So good!
We then came back for lunch and a rest. The back out again.
We didn’t find a settled group in the afternoon so no swim. But great watching.
We saw some whales go down and Brant slipped in to check them out. He came up to say they were not settled and moving on. Oh well we got to watch.
We got some heavy rain and boated around some more.
While out in the tenders we are well looked after. An esky full of refillable water bottles, and bags of pineapple, water melon, rock melon, chocolate and pringles.
Food scrapes like fruit rinds are thrown into the sea. After a while we started pegging the rinds at each other. Well Gena and I did. Over the week we got all involved including the staff and even the owner of the business. Much fun.
Another great session. Then cocktail time! Mojitos tonight.
That night we matched one of my fluke photos with a whale. “Striation”. Last seen of Maine in 2008! How cool is that! When back in internet world I will get all the details. Yay for me!
Tuesday 6th Feb
At night the two tenders are tethered behind the boat. In the morning two of the staff jump in and swim to them. They climb aboard and bring thm in. We all loaded up and off we go.
At the end of the day, after we are all out with the gear, the tender is tethered and in they jump to swim back to the boat. Pretty cool commute to work!
We headed out in ‘Escort’ today with Laurenso, Joe and Oswaldo.
Not a lot happening as far as whales were concerned. But we still had a great time. There were always whales doing acrobatic things at a distance, and all had their spotters eyes on. “Blow at 10 o’clock, 10 boat lengths away.” Boat lengths being the Mothership – not the tender.
We found two adults sleeping. Huge. And into the water we went.
It was amazing to watch the cleaner fish at work. This, they believe is one of the reasons they migrate here – to have lice and bugs cleaned form their skin.
The visibility was not great here but still got to see amazing things.
In the afternoon we didn’t find any whales that were interested in us being around. Saw lots of breaches at a distance. Sometimes it looked like they were playing “the floor is lava” and trying to keep out of the water.
Lots of laughter and fun was had.
There are so many lovely people on the trip. And a few really serious photographers. Our tender had at least $100,000 worth of camera gear in it.
Barnacles live in a symbiotic relationship with humpbacks. They grow on the leading edge of a humpbacks pectoral fins. And on the jaw line. They believe they are used for defence. A whack from a five metre long pectoral fin covered in orange sized barnacles is a pretty effective weapon The ones on the jaw are used for smacking each other as well as for scraping along the bottom of the sea bed.
Tonight’s sundowners drink were Margaritas. It was so lovely sitting up on the fly deck looking, chatting and having fun. All watching for the magic Green Flash. But each night had a bit of cloud on the horizon – so no flash.
After the evening meeting everyone sleeps well!
WEDNESDAY 7TH FEB
So off we headed at 8.30. We are all an efficient unit and quick to get ready. We were in ‘Escort’ today with Denise, Brent and Chris, and Ted.
Not a lot happened for the two hours. We drove around having fun. Saw lots in the distance and a few “blow and go” groups.
We finally came upon a sleeping pair and in we got. Great look. Two giants just lying there. The girl rolled over onto her back and gave us a great look at her belly with the huge fluted throat.
The humpback has a huge head and mouth. At the base of the jaw the animal is able to ‘unhinge the jaw when gulping’. That, combined with the huge pleated throat that goes down half of the body – allows it to take in massive amounts of water. They are a baleen whale, so they take a mouthful, filled with krill, fish or whatever it is hunting. They then close their mouth and use their tongue to expel the water through the baleen. The catch is sieved out and swallowed. Even though they can take in a volume of water greater than their own size, they have a throat the size of a rock melon so cannot eat us.
They woke up and headed off. Then went down for another sleep. We got to swim with them three times. When they woke up and swam to the surface, it was so amazing. So gentle and slow. Not an ounce of wasted effort. A big blow and a roll and off they would go. Not at all worried about us. The female had such intricate patterns on her tiny dorsal fin.
Their pectoral fins are five meters long. And glow bright white under water.
It was decided to go back for an early lunch (11am) as it had quietened down. Sad face! But then we got a radio call – the other boat was over with a sleeping pair. So we were going to look at them when that group finished. We floated around for about 15 minutes waiting for them to finish.
They hopped out and we were about to hop in, when the two woke up. Up they came to the surface and wow – life changed!
The female was in a great mood and decided we were OK.
We spent the next 90 minutes with two gigantic whales looking at us. They were coming right over to the boats and rolling around, fin slapping, tail lifting and then spy hopping. So close to the boat. Sometimes less then two metres away. Too close for great photos as we all had big lens’s on our cameras. But we all snapped away. Cheering and yelling with every action. They were so close we were able to hang over the side and stick out cameras underwater. So amazing.
The leading edge of the pectoral fins was fantastic. Huge barnacle all over them. Big barnacles. Close to the size of tennis balls – just a bit smaller.
The girl was super friendly and the guy tried to move her on, but then he got into it too. Mind blowing-ly amazing. At times there were two heads up right next to the boat. Or two sets of fin slapping. Sometimes we would all be looking at one doing something amazing and one would pop up in a spy hop behind us – panto style.
We could see their eyes, their tubercles (hair follicles), giant pimple like things with a single hair from each.
Then they would swim under the boat. And around it. And back again. They circled us and didn’t stop looking at us.
And of course we all cheered, yelled, swore and gasped the whole time. Apparently they like the cheering and yelling – so we didn’t disappoint.
To actually connect with two of these amazing animals was such a powerful experience. This will be in my heart and my mind for ever.
SO AMAZING! Truly magic. So wonderful it did bring tears. Not just me. A few of us cried at the beauty and magnificence.
Really heavy rain started just as they decided they had had enough. So we parted company and headed off in different directions.
This was one of the most magical experiences ever! I’ve done some amazing animal encounters and seen great things – but this was magical. It wasn’t just me looking at them. It was them interested in me! A real connection.
WOW.
After lunch we went out again. Nothing much happened. Just whales breaching, blowing and showing there flukes. Lovely.
But we did have the best boat group.
Jeff – a photographer and expedition guide with Lindblad Expedition.
His mum Alice who has done so many brilliant trips and obviously set Jeff on the right path. (From San Fran area).
Gena and Ray – awesome and my main fruit games mate. Gena is the CEO of Cheeseman’s. Ray’s wetsuit had “Larry” printed in the branding. So you can guess who he became for the trip! And from San Fran area.
Tom and Roxy – word travellers and also from the San Fran area. Great fun.
Dale – a photographer and deck hand who works on whale trips out of just south of Los Angeles. Awesome photos and videos. And so hilarious.
Shirley. A mature lady who has done many Cheeseman’s tours. Ted and her son have been great mates since school. So therefore she is also from San Fran area.
And me. Not from the San Fran area. And in fact the only Non US guest on the trip!
And every one of them hated that trump man with a passion.
We were sometimes joined by Oswaldo. He is a person who was one of the driving forces in establishing the Silver Bank Sanctuary 30 years ago. He is something to do with the Environment Department and is a hero for starting this up!
And by Tom – the owner of the company that runs the trips. Another great photographer and film maker. He got pretty into fruit games as well.
Thursday 8th
We didn’t manage to get into the water today, but still had amazing experiences.
The first group was three “Dancers”. Two adults and a juvenile. They were mainly on the surface, flipping around. Lots of Pectoral fin slapping and synchronised fin displays. They would lie on their sides and put up one pectoral and half a fluke, then weave around each other. Absolutely beautiful. There giant beast doing a slow motion ballet with 5 metre fins waving around. So beautiful.
And after we headed off we saw duelling tails. Two whales going crazy with a tail lobbing. Nose down and tail up. Right up. Then slapping and slapping. Sometimes in perfect sync, sometimes not. Great.
The fruit rind fights we fun. They started with trying to wizz the object by the other person’s head – as close as possible. We eventually progressed to just throwing them at each other. We even had got Tom involved – the owner of the company.
In the afternoon we came across a mother and calf, with an escort. A giant of a guy. When they were close and swam away from you could really see their size. Like trucks.
Tom got in and swam over to see if the group was happy to have us in. The female was fine – but the escort was having nothing and no one getting between him and ‘his girl’. He made it clear he was not welcome. Escort body language is pretty damn clean when they want it to be. He swam towards Tom, then did a big underwater tail swing toward him. Not dangerously close. But enough for Tom to back pedal pretty damn fast and exit the water. Needless to say we didn’t swim with this group!
And that was a good thing, because soon we came across another group. This one had a tiny baby! Only a few weeks old. So little and pink. Her pectoral fins were still floppy with not much strength to them. And her face was so soft and sweet. So tiny! Only about 5 metres long! Hahaha.
The baby was experimenting with its mouth. Opening It up and gulping water. Must be a weird feeling when the fluted throat starts opening up and filling with water.
Then the baby started riding on mum’s head. She would swim on the surface with her nose sticking out, just below the surface. The baby would lie across it and get pushed along. Every now and then the baby would lose its balance and fall off. Skidding and tumbling around. Amazing.
Nose riding.
Nose falling.
Fins were still flopping as they develop muscle.
Two challengers showed up and started sniffing around. Mum took off with baby and left the escort to send them on their way.
The new challengers decided we were more fun then the escort and played with us, with a gigantic spy hop, then slapping.
A RainBlow.
Friday 9th
There were two other live aboard boats out on the Bank with us. The usual program is for them all to pack up on the Friday morning and head back to port. But Cheeseman’s does an extra half day. So off we set at 8.30. Our last tender trip.
Right near the Mother ship, we came across a female with a “Rowdy Mob”. A few males following and trying to impress.
There was the female, her escort and two other males. Lots of Argie Bargie and pushing around.
Quiet a lot of activity. One kept doing small spy hops to check out the location of the other guys. Much fun. Then after a while another two guys turned up. Now we had a real rowdy mob.
Miss Popular would spend a lot of time floating on the surface and watching the guys. She gets to set the pace of the rowdy mob. If she is slow and relaxed, they all hang around trying to get close. If she takes off, they all take off.
No one seemed to meet her needs so after a while off she headed – with Mr Escort in hot pursuit.
We then came across a girl ‘making a splash’, trying to attract attention. She was fin slapping, then slapping when onto her back and was really getting into it. One pectoral fin and half a fluke up.
The sea was big (for when out in a tender) and the wind was whipping spray into our faces. Too wet to take too many photos. And many were not sharp but still wonderful.
At a distance we saw two whales breaching – in perfect harmony. Amazing. Even the splashes were perfect.
Then heaps more pectoral fin slapping, tail lobbing, breaching.
Every single piece of rubbish that was seen was collected. On day we saw the “Giant Orange Bag Fish”. It so looked like a huge jelly fish. It was full of water and floating along about a mete under the surface. So sad. 
Off in the distance we saw one do the highest breach – TOTALLY out of the water. So cool. No photos – but it’s burnt into my brain.
Then back to the mothership. They quickly packed all up and off we went. Tenders secured. Everything tied down.
As we came out of the Silver Bank reef area we hit much bigger weather. The ship was rolling around. Really rolling. A pod of Spotted Dolphins escorted us out. Beautiful creatures with motley sides and a pink belly. They swam with us for many minutes. We all wobbled out to the front of the ship. Banging off the corridor walls and stumbling around the front.
Then the seas got rougher. People were sick and went to bed. Others sat out and chatted – and played with photos. One hand of the computer, one hand on your drink.
By dinner time the seas were quiet rough. They set the table and cutlery would go sliding off the table.
When dinner was served a few plates went sliding along the table and onto the floor. One swell sent the chairs rocking. As one ladies chair swung, the guy next to her tried to grab her to steady her. But alas – they and their chairs and their plates of dinner went sprawling across the room. Once we saw no one was hurt, it was very funny. And so lucky she didn’t grab the tablecloth! That would have been funny.
The next few hours were pretty funny. Forget one hand for the ship! It was two hands for the ship by this stage. Lucky the ship had stabilisers! Tiny little ones. Only 1.3 meters long. Bit smaller than the 15 metre ones I’m used to on big ships. But they worked.
Well not EVERYONE was falling all over the place.
We reached the harbour at about 9 pm. They kept warning us that it was going to get very rough! We had to do a sharp turn then a stop. Everyone had to grab something – something that was not going to rock over and to hang on. And sure enough it was a big list. Then the stop. Which was very sloppy. Very.
And why a stop? Well remember the tenders that have to be tied up at a different pier. Well this had to be done. So in the rough water, in the dark, Brant and Guy Joe (as opposed to kitchen Jo) had to jump in and swim to the tenders. Climb on and reverse the earlier procedures, then take them to the other pier. Then wet and soggy had to walk to the boat.
Once tied up we were allowed off the ship. Our final night was on the ship but we could go out for wifi and phone service. Off I went and check in. Getting back on was NOT fun. There is no gang way! The boat is tied up with the huge puffy buoy pads. You step off the wharf, about 800mm at the best and onto a rail then down onto a bench. In the dark and the wet I kept visualising my fitbit coming off my wrist as I was grabbed when boarding the ship a week ago, and plopping into the water.
So it took me a few goes. I panicked on the first two goes, but made it just fine when Jeff – one of our boat group came out and helped. Not only is Jeff a lovely guy he is a sensational photographer. So good. He had one of the brilliant camera housing and that along with his skill took brilliant underwater whale photos.
Saturday 10th Feb
SAD MORNING!
Get off my ship day.
But first a tour of the engine room etc.
Work room
Mark the engineer.
Laundry
After breakfast we disembarked and took our gear up to a storage room. Then became that HORRID process of saying goodbye. We all had different times to fly out – so the goodbyes went on and on! Some of us went to a coffee shop and had real breakfast!
My flight was at 2.20, so an 11.30 transfer. BUT Gena and Ray, and Jeff and Alice were on the same transfer.
So we all had lunch. More goodbyes then the flight.
My final goodbye was to Jeff and Alice in Charlotte where they flew on and I stayed!
They are all gone now….
Sunday 11th Feb.
Off to Cuba.
7.30. So I went to Delta last night to sort out my Visa. All checked in and ready to go. And so glad I did as it took about half an hour. But done now so an extra hour in bed. Didn’t have to leave the hotel until 5am!
I got an update from Happy Whale today. Look at all MY whales!
So now I’m off to Havana. Yay. There are about 4 spots in Havana where but wifi. So probably no updates for a while.
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