MINKE WHALE TRIP July 2009

Wow what an experience. Sorry if this story is a bit long. There is just so much to write about.

It all started at 5:30 in the morning with my wonderful mother picking Meg, Liam and I to the airport. Most people were on the direct flight from Melbourne to cairns leaving at 7:30 am. For some reason Meg and I were on the 7am flight which left Melbourne and then stopped in Brisbane. We did not arrive until 12:30. The others were already at cairns for a couple of hours and made their way around cairns city.

Well timed there were 2 American navy vessels docked in the harbour so Cairns was full with 5000 navy boys. Not as much eye candy as I would have thought but my god were there heaps of American accents. We were assured that we would be on the boat tonight instead of dealing with thousands of drunken sailors- it was going to turn ferral in Cairns tonight. After killing the afternoon and dropping off our bags to the mike ball office we were to meet at a different harbour than what mike ball is used to because of the big American fleet that had landed. This was no problem until Lou, Meg and I rocked up to our meeting spot and I was told by the rest of the group that they had lost Liam somewhere in cairns. Yeah. We were off to a great start. After calling his mobile 20 times, and realising that it was in his luggage and not with him, I reluctantly told the tour leader of mike ball that we have lost one of our group. After a bit of confusion and wondering if Liam had any idea where he was supposed to be we saw him daudle up nice and casually to the dock, not realising he was late or that we thought he wouldn’t have made it at all.

All worked out well. We boarded the ship and came up to the lounge greeted with champagne and nibbles. The crew were introduced, we introduced ourselves and realised that the Melbourneians were to dominate this ship. 14 of us in total. By coincidence another couple of our club members Frank and Tanaz had booked to be on the same trip. Too bad if they wanted to get away from Melbournians. Through the introduction we realised how lucky we were as the head researcher for the Dwarf minke whale project was to be on board. This was his first trip out for the year and we were very privileged to have him with us as he had been started, and been working on this project for 14 years, and was the minke guru.

Most people were in bed at around 10pm as they were all knackered from the early start and reaclimatizing to the heat. Going from 6 degrees in the morning to Melbourne to 28 degrees was a bit different. I slept so well. As the boat steamed out to the reef it gently rocked everyone to sleep. It was like I was a baby again.

The first day we awoke to a big Happy birthday to me and Lou. We were woken up at 7am for a wonderful cooked breakfast of eggs, bacon,

tomatoes, mushrooms, all the different toasts and cereals you can imagine and of course wonderful fresh fruit. Starting off the day without having to cook your own breakfast and with the best scrambled eggs I have ever had was great. After all stuffing ourselves silly we sat for a bit to digest our food and then had a briefing on dive procedures and minke whale encounters.

It was around 8:30am when we were all briefed about our first dive site, flairs point. A big table bommie with lots of other bommies surrounding it the dive site was quite a big and beautiful site. There were your usual tropical corals and fish and a family of 4 massive bump headed parrot fish. I was stuck to my snorkel as it was hard to hide that I was 6 months pregnant. After free diving down to Meg and grabbing her occy I had my 30 seconds of diving and came back up. Everyone loved the reef. It really is so different from diving in Melbourne and now they understood when I said that if you can dive in Melbourne you can dive anywhere in the world. Even through our interviews with Richard, our trip director, once my divers mentioned they were from Melbourne he wasn’t too fussed with their experience. Learning in tempereate waters really does count for a lot. So far the morning had been great. What more could you want. You woke up in the middle of the ocean to a beautiful flat, sunny, warm day with plenty of fresh air. You then had food cooked for you and then you had a great dive/snorkel.

It was about to be made more amazing. With the sightings of 2 minkes the minke snorkeling lines were thrown out. We all grabbed onto the line and waited in anticipation for our first minke encounter. Wow was it an encounter. They were getting so close. Around 5 metres in length the 2 minke whales came in and out from the group. Their inquisitive nature took them closer and closer. They were so majestic, sleep in the water and graceful. The dwarf minke whales have only ever been know to come together in a group in the ribbon reefs of Queensland in July and August each year.

From data collected through encounters and photos they only do this for about a 3 year cycle and then they do what ever else minkes do with their lives. The researches have no idea what that is. After over an hour in the water most of us were getting cold and so we jumped out. Once we jumped out another 6 whales came to play. While we were on board the minkes were constantly breaching to take air as they can only really stay down for 2 to 3 minutes on one breath. It was as if this happens all the time up there. For the next hour we were all just saying hello to the constantly breaching whales. The minke whales are quite unique as they are the only known whale to purposefully interact with us. Most whales you see are just going about their merry way and don’t care for our presence. These little guys are intrigued to see what we are about as long as our behavour is predictable to them. The stiller you are in the water the more confidence they will have that you are not a threat and the closer they will get. The group of 7-9 whales came as close as 2 metres to Alistair and even blew bubbles at him. Amazing creatures and definitely one of the most unusual and beautiful things I had ever done in my life.

What a birthday so far. After this encounter we were served a fantastic lunch of freshly marinated veges, salads meats and fresh rolls. Yummo. The food definitely lives up to its reputation on the mike ball boats. After lunch the crew had to drag Alistair into the boat again as the minkes had moved on (the encounter lasted just under 3 hours) We steamed to steves bommie which was only 2 minutes away. Steves bommies is a big volcano looking structure that goes down to around 34 metres. The schools of fish are amazing. As there are no other large reef structures close to this bommie the fish are magnetized to it and are abundant. Again every one was blown away with the dive site and the diving. That night the wonderful chef on the boat made Lou and I the best mud cake ever. We were really getting spoilt.

The amazing dives, great food and fantastic times continued for the rest of the trip. I am speaking on behalf of the group here but everyone loved

the trip. Group dive travel is fantastic. The treatment that you get when you travel with a group surpasses what you usually get as individuals. Extra privileges (like letting a 6 month pregnant lady dive) and extra service is usually what you can expect. We have the Mike Ball Video in the shop as well as all our pics so if you want to see more just come in.

Yes you read right in the last paragraph. I had a dive YEAH!! It was a very conservative and shallow dive with the huge potato cod. This will have to tide me over for another 6 months. Dive travel can be as cheap as putting aside $35 per week so well worth coming and having a look at our payment options and you too can be part of a great trip that you will be talking about for years to come.

By Kat Vcelka