Cetacean Jamboree! (Written on Jan 24, 2013) Reporting for my midnight watch I am very interested to hear that Maria has had a “Cetacean Jamboree” detecting all kinds of cetacean sounds including a mysterious call not unlike Sigourney Weavers’ “Aliens”, dolphins, blues, and a noisy container ship knocking everything out for a half an hour. […]
Archive | Whale Song Reports
Day 5 Voyage Report via satellite
Grey, Grey Wednesday! (Written Jan23, 2013) Lots of darkness all around, we are 38 00.7 S and 123 07.0 at 265.6 nm SE of Esperance. It’s 4730 m deep, way deep, all over your head basically! Thus far we have heard sperm whales, sighted a beaked whale (and recorded its calls), seen and heard common […]
Day 4 Voyage Report via satellite
Beaked Whales Trilling Good Morning! (Written Jan 22, 2013) Blackness shrouds Whale Song – the sky, again moonless and clouded over covers a matt black seascape. Looking down into our side-wash, tiny phosphorescent ostracods and other microscopic nekton and plankton twinkle. This light, apart from our own navigation lights, theirs is the only lightness around. […]
Day 3 Voyage Report via satellite
Ahoy Mr. Albert Ross! (Written Jan 21, 2013) The sky is again moon-less and inky-black, the scattered clouds through which the stars struggle to sparkle cast a foggy hue as I begin my 12-3am watch. Monitoring the sonobuoys, Maria and I detect “Man-made” tones emitted by two approaching vessels but otherwise all is quiet and […]
Day 2 Voyage Report – We are settling in!
Day 2 – We are settling in! (Written on Jan 20, 2013) Immediately after our “First-Night-Out-Pasta” (as named for Day 1), served with mounds of grated cheese and rustic baguette accompanied by a rising swell, all the crew collapsed into bed exhausted from their huge first day out. As we approach Cape […]
Day 1 Voyage Report – On the High Seas Again!
Day 1 – On the High Seas Again! (Written on Jan 19, 2013) After several days of lists upon lists and running to and fro re-supplying our good ship Whale Song with all things tasty and useful, I try to convince myself that if I have forgotten something and it isn’t on […]
Darwin Departure and Scott Reef
Darwin Departure and Scott Reef 2 emailed 09/10/12 Daffy wings away and we are back to The Usual Suspects Five, now getting ready for our transit trip home to Fremantle via Scott Reef. We have some unfinished business out there and must go back en route. On September 25th we up anchor at 1245 and […]
Tropical Feeding Frenzy!
We recently travelled from Fremantle to Darwin and while en route experienced an incredible sunset feeding frenzy with several species of marine animals. After a long day of searching for whales, at 5:20 pm I was relieved to see a large cetacean-sized splash two nautical miles away on a bearing of 045 degrees. Calling the […]
York Sound Courtship – Humpback Whale Style!
While en route to the East Coast of Australia via the “Top End” to take part in a collaborative research program on humpback whales, Whale Song and her crew had an opportunity to once again wind our way north through the nooks and crannies of the exquisite Kimberley coast. We visited well-travelled places and some, […]
The Long Way Home – Malta to Fremantle: Part 2
Leaving Malta on November 18, 2010 and arriving on February 25, 2011 we experienced a wonderful voyage the long, safe way home! This is our journey in a nut-shell… 109,000 litres of diesel fuel, 13,000 nautical miles, 16 crew members ,16 species of cetaceans, , 9 currencies, 8 ports of call, 7 Journey Legs, 6 […]