In this photo, one of the humpback whales is performing a breech. It was hard to get a clear shot of it because the sun was shining off the water falling from the whale.� Even so, it was a magnificent sight.
Several rules have to be followed to help ensure the whales' safety.� One of those rules is that a ship may not move withing 100 meters of a whale.� A captain cannot, however, help it if the whale chooses to swim closer to the boat.� We were lucky enough to have this happen.�
Humpback whales can stay underwater for an average of seven minutes before surfacing.� At one point, we hadn't seen them for over 10 minutes and everyone was wondering where they were.� The captain's wife spotted them...they were swimming directly behind the boat and were quickly moving to a position right beside us.� The captain warned us to stand back from the edge because we could get sprayed when they surfaced.� Nobody moved.� The whales were so close.� The water of the Tasman Sea is so clear we could see them even when they were underwater.� They surfaced, some people got wet, and nobody cared.� It was priceless.
We stayed with the whales for a little longer, but it was soon time to return to port.� We headed back to the Bay and saw some dolphins playing along the way.� It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.