Thar She Blows!/We're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat

Where in the world are the whales? Where do they wander way under the waves? (Steve Grimes, Whale Song)

Well, we took off yesterday from Cape Town, off to Gansbaai (Chanz-bay), home of diving with white sharks inside a cage (sorry, Kyle & Chris, no outside diving) and the premier land-based whale-watching in the world.

We caught some funky weather on out two-hour journey, as you can see by this snippet:

We arrived in Gansbaai around 5pm and right away we could see the whales from our balcony (they are Right Whales, called that because they were the right ones for whalers to catch as they floated to the surface after being killed).

Look just to the left of the pole

Can be seen a little clearer here

Amazing creatures. And for the record, I did not punch any whales. They are just so damn adorable, with those barnacles growing on them, how could I punch one?

I realize it's hard to see them in these photos, but check out the ones below (plus some more video); it will give you a better idea of how huge they are.

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You got fins to the left, fins to the right, and you're the only bait in town... (Jimmy Buffett, Fins)

Got up early this morning for the cage dive with sharks. How does it work? 5-6 people in 5mm wet suits float in a cage on the side of the boat while the crew throws tuna and/or mackerel heads in the water. When the crew see a shark (Great Whites only), they yell "Down!" and we duck under to see the shark.

We lucked out and saw SEVEN Great Whites; most were small, but a couple were quite big, including the big one that was estimated at 3.8 meters long, or about 12 1/2 feet long. Though I could swear it was 30 feet. But when one of those suckers leap OUT OF THE WATER in front of you, you would swear it was a school bus.

Unfortunately, my camera got hosed (water leaked into the housing), but I do have video that the crew took, and also other passengers took. Out of 12 passengers, two were from Arlington VA, two were from Gaithersburg, one was from Annapolis, and I'm from Alexandria.

I thought traveling 10,000 miles would get me away from all you people!!!

Good news, using free software, I was able to extract .jpeg from the video I bought; although the images are grainy, you can get an idea what it was like (taken from the boat, not the water):

Give me that mackerel head!

Yum Yum Chomp Chomp

This was the big one, unreal being that close

Hello, Ms. Shark

That satisfied my being in the water for the rest of my life trip. But we then walked down to the water later this morning and got some daytime whale shots and videos:

Hello Mr. Whale Flipper

Lolling on its back

Karate chop to the water

Some nice-looking tail

Well, that's all for now, off to the Garden Route, next report probably from George (Hello Dad) South Africa.

Eat your braai!

-Steve