Tonga whale swim

9/9/2012, Vava’u Tonga, Whale swim

Alan’s 71st birthday.  It does not seem fair to wake him up at 6:00 but they are coming to pick us up at 7 to go swimming with whales.    Right on time the boat shows up and off we go.  After days of lovely calm weather, today is windy and cloudy, much like our dive trip on Rangiroa.  We head out of the harbor and for 2 hours we circle the ocean looking for whales.  One is spotted , blowing and leaping.  just behind the boat we turn and race over to the spot only to have it disappear.  We circle and wait.  They can stay under water as long as 30 minutes.  Eventually we give up and move on, only to have him leap into the air as soon as we have moved away,  great twisting leaps with his body completely out of the water.  I am actually glad that we were not right there when he did that.  We turn and head back to where he was last seen and drop a  microphone overboard.  We can hear faint singing but it seems there is only one and he is moving on.  Apparently the leaping is a sign that they are getting ready to move.

Back to cruising around, constant radio chatter with the other whale watch boats.  We are looking for a family group that is “settled”.   There is a strictly enforced system of dives.  If one boat finds a good group  of whales the other boats can sign up to be next but only one at a time.  Each boat must wait until the previous one is finished and moves on.  We would like to find our own whales.  We leave the outside of the islands and move inside, still looking.  Eventually, more than 2 hours after we set out, we spot what looks like a good group of whales.  We are told to gear up and be ready to go in.  Our dive guide goes over check it out.  At the high sign in we go.

The water is very cloudy because of all the wind but the guide is pointing down and finally I spot it.  The white outline of giant flippers right below us, moving slowly back and forth.  Little by little my eyes get used to the water and suddenly I realize that the baby is coming up right beside us.  We have been warned not to try to follow the baby, just to stay still.  We gather together as much as possible given the rough water and the 20’ baby rises up for a breath of air and a good look at us.  Wow!  there are no words.  Just amazing to be in the water with something that big and gentle.  Mama is down below and daddy is not far away, keeping a close watch. Our group of 8 is divided into 2 dive groups and eventually our time is up and we climb back into the boat while the other group has their turn.  On our second dive the male stands upright for ages just looking at us as the baby comes up.  Then the male comes up to breathe.  He is huge and right next to us and we can see two pilot fish on his belly.  It looks like he is going to oft me right out of the water on his back but I guess he has a better sense of space than I do because of course he does not actually come that close,  Alan says he was at least 8 feet away.  The most spectacular moment of the day is when the three of them swim off together, so slow and graceful, so magnificent, mama on one side, daddy on the other and baby safely in the middle.   It is hard to imagine ever hunting such magnificent creatures.  It seem such a gift of generosity that they allow us to share the water with them.

This water is much colder than back in French Polynesia.  With the cold wind that is blowing and the cloudy sky Alan and I are both shivering by the time we break for lunch.  Our little boat leaves the whales behind and anchors off a beautiful deserted beach of white sand.  Lunch is served up, including a birthday cake for Alan,  and we all eat and relax and get warm.   As usual, people are amazed that we are 71 years old   After lunch we set off again to look for more whales.  This time we are unsuccessful so instead we go cave diving.  To get into the first cave, it is necessary to dive down about 3 feet and swim underwater for another 10 feet before coming up in the cave.  Swimming underwater is not a problem for me but diving down is.  I float.  I have always had a problem getting down and it is even worse with a wetsuit on.  I try 3 or 4 times but it is obvious that is am just going to bounce up and scrape along the roof of the tunnel.  Eventually I give it up and head back to the boat to see if he has any weights.  Of course he does not, so I just wait until everyone else is finished.  The second cave we visit is above water so it is not a problem.  The walls of light tan stone rise above up 50 feet or so to a hole where we can see trees and blue sky.  The rocks are all eroded into wonderful shapes like pillars in a cathedral.  i can almost hear organ music playing.  Our third cave is also above water but it has a secondary cave inside that is just barely below the water.  This one I can do.  Again it is beautiful inside with the light coming down through a home in the roof and bouncing off the bottom.  There ae fish everywhere and even a sea snake.

It is finally time to head back, a perfect birthday!  We had invited on of the other swimmers back to see the boat.  She had mentioned that her uncle used to sail and she wanted to learn how so we though a tour of Rhapsody would be fun.  When she and Alan got to talking it turned out that her uncle who sailed was actually the owner of Stormvogel, a very famous and very beautiful 72 foot ketch.  Of course Alan knew more about it than she did so now she is doubly inspired and is going to contact her uncle to see if he wants to go sailing again. 

The day ended with a wonderful lobster dinner at the Beach House Restaurant watching the sunset.  While we were waiting for our meal we surfed the net for pictures and articles about Stormvogel.  Turns out she is still racing and winning so it looks like Mari may get to actually sail on her.  Back at the boat, we ended the day with expresso and brownies.  A perfect, perfect birthday.