Our sixth and final day with the sperm whales was also wonderful. But first I'll start with a couple surface photos.
Another beautiful day on the water. We lucked out on both the weather and on sperm whales.
Guadalupe Island off to our north.
Jerry and Beth ready to slip in when the captain gives the word.
Tom and Izzy ready to slip in when the captain says "go, go, go!"
Below are some pictures from our sixth, and final, day snorkeling with sperm whales off Dominica, to see more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Sf1rvmsy4UAyvWrW9
Russ in position as she closes with us.
Here she comes, fast. I like the vortices generated on the top of her head, funny, didn't note them at the time! My mental collision alarm klaxons were going off at this point, she's really close and closing really fast. Russ was off to my right, Barbs and Chris to my left where was she going to go?
She made a shallow dive. Good view of her single blow hole.
Then she came back up and hooked a little to my right and came right through us. Very very exciting. I was truly awestruck, happily, not actually struck!
She continued on, I love the large vortex spinning off of her.
Here's another excellent encounter.
Tried to keep up but couldn't match her speed. Look how calm it is with her reflection on the surface.
A third excellent encounter.
On this shot you can tell from the particles in the water showing as streaks, that I was kicking hard to keep up with the whale.
Didn't get as close on this one and I was shooting into the sun so lots of backscatter.
Three guesses what the dark patch behind her is as she starts a deep dive to hunt more squid, the second and third guesses don't count.
Here Izzy is showing us squid beaks he just recovered from some sperm whale poo on his latest whale encounter.
Squid beaks from Sperm Whale poo.
Our next surprise for the day is when Captain Frances took us over to meet up with our sister Sperm Whale snorkeling boat, Southern Cross.
When we pulled alongside, we realized that one of folks on the boat had a wreath of Giant Squid around her neck and draped over her shoulders.
Here they've stretched out the tentacle, this piece was at least 20 ft long, so the Giant Squid that had just become lunch for the sperm whale was at least 30 ft long. They explained that the whale had the tentacle trailing from its mouth, then dropped it and circled back and swam a giant vertical circle with it while beneath them before dropping it at the surface again for them to recover. Fyi, squid have two long tentacles to first grasp prey and eight heavier, shorter, arms to pull the prey into its beak.
Here are shots of the sixth of us on this wonderful adventure:
Tom and Beth
Russ and Barbs
Jerry
Dig my dark shades!
The Seaworld Guest House where we stayed.
The waxing moon and Venus from the third floor of Seaworld Guest House. We frequently ate takeout or food we'd bought at a supermarket for dinner. Evening walks to nearby restaurants could be hazardous due to crowded driving on the left with very limited sidewalks..
This was a fantastic, unforgettable trip!
No comments:
Post a Comment