Humpback Whales

The drive to do what one loves will often lead you through some serious trials and tribulations.

An opportunity arose to fly down to the Turks and Caicos to visit a friend and take his 27-foot Boston Whaler through the chain of islands in search of Humpback whales and adventure. I immediately jumped at the chance and instantly booked a flight.

From the moment I knew I was headed out on another great voyage, I started to plan my trip. What I would need, how many cameras to bring, how many socks, everything. Packing is a few days affair for me because the last thing I want happening is to get out in the middle of the ocean and find out that I’m missing one crucial piece of equipment and I blow the entire expedition due to my own neglect and stupidity. So I started preparing cameras, Nikon SLRs with Aquatica housings, my Dive Rite Venture wing and backplate, good for lightweight travel and single tanks, which was nice change from the double tanks I’m used to wearing. After making sure that I hadn’t forgotten anything and triple checking my gear, I was ready to head out in search of Humpback Whales, a creature that I have dreamed about since the day I first saw them in the pages of National Geographic around the age of six.

I arrived at the airport and got my entire overweight luggage checked in only to find that I was about to experience the first of many delays and cancellations. In a nut shell, as I am still in the air writing this, I’ve had three cancelled flights, two overnight delays due to them, and four missed connections; henceforth the need to rebook on later flights. Fingers are currently crossed.

After finally arriving in the Turks and Caicos and being greeted at the airport by one of my best friends with a smile and a Presidente beer, we headed for the boat. We had to venture a few islands over from Provodenciales to the island he lives on, Pine Cay, an amazing private retreat with no gas vehicles, only electric golf carts to get around the sand paths from dock to home. We settled in and started planning our voyage across the Turks and Caicos to the opposite end of the islands where there are supposed to be lots of whales swimming the deep warm offshore waters. Never having done this trip himself, there was extensive planning with charts and GPS in order to find our best route to avoid getting lost or hung up on a coral head. “Wheels up” came as high tide began and the journey was under way. Winding through coral and over shallow sand bars, our team of four headed from Pine Cay to South Caicos for the first leg.

The plan was to stay on South Caicos over night, fuel up and cross the ship channel the next morning towards Salt Cay where all the whales are. While on South I noticed a small fishing boat full of Hawksbill turtles that a local fisherman had caught to sell. This was heart breaking, considering that we had just seen turtles swimming around the reef, possibly the same ones. I snapped a few shots before I was chased off by the fisherman who seemed quite aware that what he was doing was wrong. We even offered to buy the turtles only to get no response and be ignored.

Salt Cay was a completely different scene however; as we drifted into the calm harbor there were people hanging around, laughing and joking by the water. With just enough time to get our bearings, we headed back out to find why we had gone there in the first place. We meandered through large ocean swells and surfed down them with our 27 foot surfboard, scanned the horizon and searched for a breath of air from the gentle giants, but there were none to be found. We decided that since the sun was heading down we should get a dive in before the end of the day. Just as I was about to roll back into the water, Robert (the captain), saw whales, headed right towards us. We pulled up the anchor and crept closer for a look while still keeping a good distance so as to not aggravate the two whales. They quickly sounded and were out of sight before we knew it. They had decided for us that our day was over.

That night the team met up with a whale biologist, Sue Rocca, from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society(WDCS). Sue joined the team the next day and with her bionic eyes made our job of spotting whales a lot easier. “There’s one! about four miles off our starboard side at 2 o’clock!” yelled Sue. “... WHAT! unbelievable”, I yelled back. Sue was able to spot whales miles away and had no problem standing on the gunwale as the boat crashed over six foot swells for hours on end. She could hang with us.

Sue had brought a hydrophone with her to listen and record the whales singing. They apparently all sing the same song during the course of a year, but the song also changes every year, this leads me to believe that whales have a top ten chart and pop stars as well. I found one of the most amazing things I’ve ever done was, once you spot a whale, find a good safe spot to anchor, away from break and surge, and make a dive. Then listen to them sing back and forth and it is by far the most incredible song you’ll ever hear.

After two solid days of exploring, finding a total of about fourteen whales and swimming with a mother and calf, we started to wrap up the expedition. We planned on a two week expedition next year instead of one week. I never got any great shots as they eluding us time after time, not to mention the fact that a whale can beat me in a 100 meter dash every time. I had one of the most amazing trips and would recommend it to anyone. Turks and Caicos are full of wonderful reefs, the third largest in the world behind Australia and Belize, and there are even some fascinating wrecks. From January to March and early April every year, the humpbacks migrate through on their way to their mating and calving grounds off the Silver banks. Absolutely incredible!