Tonga Expedition Three
Another success!
The trip started off great with meeting old friend Ken Knezick from Island Dreams in the U.S.A who brought a wonderful group of people from America and Canada. The rest of the passengers were from Greece, New Zealand and more from America.
We had another easy crossing to the Ha’apai group and got onto some very special whales right off the bat. We had a breaching mother and calf pair just after dawn. We marvelled at the sight and our good fortune until they stopped breaching and started logging. The mother whale displayed some strange behaviour, however, by resting nose down - tail up while baby swam up and down catching breaths and resting under her pectoral fins. Because mum’s tail was sticking up out of the water as she rested they were easy for us to find and made a quite different and very interesting encounter.
The next day gave us some great top side action with pec (pectoral fin) and peduncle (tail) slapping and some wonderful fly-bys with a mother, calf and escort whale.
by Sue Bradley
by Carol Behrman
by Harry Ford
by Harry Ford
by Caroleen Ford
by Caroleen Ford
by Caroleen Ford
by Sue Bradley
by Harry Ford
by Caroleen Ford
by Carol Behrman
by Harry Ford
by Ken Knezick
by Harry Ford
by Ken Knezick
by Harry Ford
by Ken Knezick
by Harry Ford
by Ken Knezick
by Harry Ford
by Ken Knezick
by Harry Ford
by Ken Knezick
by Harry Ford
by Ken Knezick
by Harry Ford
by Ken Knezick
by Ken Knezick
by Ken Knezick
by Harry Ford
by Harry Ford
by Harry Ford
by Ken Knezick
by Ken Knezick
by Sue Bradley
by Sue Bradley
by Sue Bradley
by Sue Bradley
by Sue Bradley
by Sue Bradley
by Sue Bradley
by Harry Ford
by Caroleen Ford
Then we had one of the most special days. A group of three juvenile whales came to play around the ship for about five minutes - enticing us into the water. Only problem was, by the time we were in our wetsuits the whales had lost interest and taken off. We decided that since we were all suited up, the sun was shining and the seas were glass, we would head out in the skiffs to try our luck. We searched for a while in vain - and traveled quite some distance in the process - until we found another juvenile group that were slow enough to let us in the water with them. And then they danced for us. There were a group of four whales that seemed to be just as curious in us as we were in them but there is no way that they could have been anywhere near as amazed or enthralled as we were. They were beautiful. The way that they moved in the flat, calm, blue water was like a ballet. Just thinking about it gives me goose bumps. We ended up back at the ship at around about 3 o’clock for a late lunch, very hungry but wholly satisfied.
Then the weather turned. We had a very stormy day but we took the ship out anyway and the photographers got the best breaching shots of the trip despite the wind and rain.
The day after turned up a big heat run in again calm seas. We followed them for most of the morning watching the show from NAI’A and all agree that that was as good as any in water encounter. Magic!
We had more sightings and encounters after those ones but the first five days were really unbeatable. We filled in our evenings with some SCUBA diving, deserted island exploration and a bon fire on the beach.
Thanks guys for a wonderful trip!
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