don't be fooled by the photos, whale-chasing is not for the faint-hearted nor the weak stomachs. first there's the welcoming and warm breeze that lulls you into thinking that the boat ride will be all bliss. after charging 45 mins south of bermuda, the party spots the first sign of a whale (via binoculars no less) and we charge ahead to hunt it down. then it's the first comfirmed sighting of the tail - voila! and a 6-10 min wait ensues as the waves crashed and rocked the boat about while the whale took it's time diving. (and i mean violent rocking motions ok - twice, things flew out from the deck into the water.) dizzy. second sighting - ooh, there's a shy whale teasing you with limited portions of her dark body as it dives again and we wait around for another 10 mins. feel faint.
the process is repeated as the avid photographers tried to capture a good shot of the elusive whale(s) while the amateurs like me felt like throwing up. by the upteemth dive/wait, bile was building up and i could feel my lips turn cold. decided it was time to throw in the towel, except the boat ride wasn't going to end for another 4 hours! went down into the cabin where i thought there would be less rocking and tried to nap. oh, the napping was good, couldn't feel anything while i napped. by the time i woke up, i felt half better but the ordeal wasn't over. this time there were 4 boats surrounding 2 whales. don't know where they came from but yeps, 4 boats! i bet the whales must be fed up with all the commotion now. ain't no peace and quiet for them on a lazy sunday afternoon.
the dive/wait/nausea just went on and on and on. there was a point when i thought of jumping in and swimming back to shore, just to escape. true, i might drown before reaching the shore but i felt like dying on the boat! but of course i didn't, or you'd probably find my picture in the back pages of the newspaper this week. by the time we left the whales alone at around 3pm and sped back to shore, i felt well enough for a sandwich and vitamin water. the whales must have been so grateful that we finally left them alone. thankfully, there were times when we got pretty close to the whales so there was some value in the nausea et al.
conclusion: i may come from a little island surrounded by sea but i'm definitely a city gal. feet firmly planted on solid ground!
the process is repeated as the avid photographers tried to capture a good shot of the elusive whale(s) while the amateurs like me felt like throwing up. by the upteemth dive/wait, bile was building up and i could feel my lips turn cold. decided it was time to throw in the towel, except the boat ride wasn't going to end for another 4 hours! went down into the cabin where i thought there would be less rocking and tried to nap. oh, the napping was good, couldn't feel anything while i napped. by the time i woke up, i felt half better but the ordeal wasn't over. this time there were 4 boats surrounding 2 whales. don't know where they came from but yeps, 4 boats! i bet the whales must be fed up with all the commotion now. ain't no peace and quiet for them on a lazy sunday afternoon.
the dive/wait/nausea just went on and on and on. there was a point when i thought of jumping in and swimming back to shore, just to escape. true, i might drown before reaching the shore but i felt like dying on the boat! but of course i didn't, or you'd probably find my picture in the back pages of the newspaper this week. by the time we left the whales alone at around 3pm and sped back to shore, i felt well enough for a sandwich and vitamin water. the whales must have been so grateful that we finally left them alone. thankfully, there were times when we got pretty close to the whales so there was some value in the nausea et al.
conclusion: i may come from a little island surrounded by sea but i'm definitely a city gal. feet firmly planted on solid ground!
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