Day 1 Grand Final Day and Whale Songs’ Freo departure… (Written on Sep 28, 2013)
Under a cloudy but golden lit sky, the silhouette profile of lighthouses, hills and pine trees on Rottnest fades on our portside. Between cloud patches the sunlight illuminates the sea as a wonderful mid-green seaway speckled with white-caps indicative of a Beaufort Sea State 4-5. Our crew of 9 is happy to be away on our next adventure, but there is a certain air of sombreness. Sadly our local AFL footie team, The Fremantle Dockers, missed out on winning the Grand Final played today in Melbourne at the legendary MCG before a spectator crowd of 100,000… Our departure was in fact delayed to watch the game and with the crew arriving in dribs and drabs throughout the afternoon, Curt and I enjoyed a lively and delicious lunch watching the TV broadcast with dear friends Peter & Patsy and Helen & Jonathon. A lovely way to see the game and our friends too!
At 1609 we dropped the last line and reversed from our pen to commence the next adventure! We will be back in February next year after traversing the Top-End, down the east coast to Jervis Bay, Sydney and Hobart. From the Apple Isle we’ll make for the Southern Ocean and mooch along the soft ice-edge locating heard cetaceans… This will be a dream come true for Curt and I – to study the Group D humpback whales in their “kitchen” in the Antarctic, as well as in their “bedroom”! Yahoo! If you would like to know more about this project please go to the link here.
Twenty minutes out of the harbour two bottlenose dolphins were sighted and then we had 5 humpback whale sightings. Our first acoustic recording at 1830 detected seven singing humpbacks! We are back in the sights and sounds again! My endless lists can be tossed and as always I am convinced that if we don’t have it – we won’t need it! I am happy to leave car-park tangling to others and I will rock-a-billy away the night on my 12-3 watch instead! Without full internet range as we travel we can rely on Daffy to keep us informed of new and interesting scientific papers. Thanks Daffy! What will we find along the way? We have a fair idea of species we should see, but there are always possibilities for new encounters and each day on the ocean brings unbridled joy and surprises.
As everyone settles back into the routine of being at-sea and hoping for their sea-legs to return, I return to my computer for my daily blog. Here I am again! Tapping away as the i-tunes playlist is selected for the dinner dishes event!
Thanks for joining our journey! We will keep you up to date with daily events and activities!
With nicely calming seas as we head towards Dongara to assist with the BRAHSS program,
Mich
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