Whaling and Footie (23rd June '07)

Firstly, for those of you interested in the marine finance and shipping business (you know who you are), check out the pictures of the Pasha Bulker on Simon and Aleisha's blog. Just click on the pictures for fantastic enlargements.

Looking back as we headed out of the harbour

On Saturday I headed out to sea myself for a spot of whaling. Well whale-watching I guess is the better term. Having seen them before when Kath was down here last I was really just in it for the pelagic birds. After the recent shocking weather, I was hoping for large numbers of oceanic species sheltering nearer to shore and in fact there have been a load of good sightings from various headlands over the past few days. Surely being out there among it all would be even better. Alas it wasn't.

Thar she blows!

We only managed to spot five species in total and two of them could be seen pretty much from my lounge window on a good day. In addition to those Silver Gulls and Crested Terns we managed to turn up a few Gannets and Yellow-nosed Albatross but also luckily for me, a single juvenile Northern Giant-Petrel #348. Success, although maybe not as dramatically successful as I was hoping.

Yellow-nosed Albatross

The Humpback Whales showed up in three pods, one of which decided to surface only 20 metres from the boat so we had pretty good views although they weren't being particularly active. One tail-slap and a couple of tail-up dives was pretty much it.

Thar they blow again

The swell was pretty big on the way out and I think only Jarrod, Adam and myself avoided bringing our lunches back to the surface. There was a dreadful scene in the main cabin of the ship with people being ill everywhere and a rather unpleasant aroma pervading the room. I made sure I stayed out on deck!

Off to the footie

In the evening I went to the Aussie rules football out at the Olympic stadium. Sydney put on an embarassingly bad display and were soundly beaten by Collingwood. I joined in booing them off. What a shocker!

Sydney stuffing up again no doubt!