OUR FIRST BALEEN WHALE 2011
At first I thought the Irish man was hallucinating. You know when you want to see something so much that you imagine it, even though it is not there. We had been sailing for not more than 15 minutes and were now staring like hungry eagles in the direction which the overall-dressed passenger was pointing – nine o'clock.
Next second, the back of a breathing minke whale actually emerged. My fellow guide Daniel and I started screaming of excitement as this was our first big whale of the year. We had not seen a baleen whale since the ast season and for us this was a really big thing!
Once it came up for a breath not more than three metres away from us – so close we could nearly touch it! Everything was visible on its body – the pointy nose, the details on its skin and the white ”bracelets” on its flippers. It was amazing.
After the minke we sailed to Puffin Island to admire the cute clowns of the ocean who have already arrived in numbers of thousands! It is always fun to visit them and on the way back home we encountered a group of harbour porpoises.
Onboard we had a French birthday kid - a gentleman called Pedauge - who was very happy getting both a big minke, an island of puffins and cute harbour porpoises on his day. Congratulations again!
(LIA)
