Humpback Whales Archives

First Contact

By Simone Lipscomb | April 7, 2015

28 March 2015

First afternoon with humpback whales.

(Silence)

WOW!

I’m sitting on the bow of the mothership listening to the sound of waves gently kissing the sides of the metal hull. Eighty miles offshore and nearly flat calm seas.

(Silence).

WOW!

I’m not sure there are words to describe the amazing experience. I’ll have to invent them.

This morning, while having breakfast, we saw humpbacks from a distance and were amazed. Truly. When three massive adults are rowdy within ten yards of the tender boat…well…just OH! MY! GOD! Thank you!!

The action was so quick…so very quick…I hardly had time to take it in. But at one point I just stopped and emotions arose. Trying to balance on a moving boat while manually focusing a heavy lens with moving whales is challenging. Very challenging. The auto-focus is too slow so I had to anticipate where they would surface, focus and wait.

Hearing the blow was amazing and one was so close I could hear the trumpet sound he was making with his exhalation. It’s a high-low sound like a raspy voice, a grunt almost. He was working hard, swimming fast to keep up with the female, calf and her escort. Just being close enough to hear that sound was amazing. It feels permanently tattooed on my soul.

Another wonderful moment was being so close we could see the white of their fins directly under us and see bubble streams as they surfaced. WOW!

SimoneLipscomb (164) — *Rowdy Group…notice the whale has a mouth-full of water. They do this supposedly to make themselves look bigger to the other male.*

There were several mother whales with juveniles but none were interested in us visiting them in the water. But it was okay. I want time to integrate this afternoon’s experiences.

(Silence).

WOW!

At one point on the small boat, when we were so close to the whales, I thought I had never felt so comfortable in my skin. (Sigh).

As I sit trying to gather my thoughts about my first close encounter with humpbacks I look into the soft, blue sky filled with wispy, white clouds. I see humpbacks in every cloud formation. One cloud looks like a spinal column, like vertebra of a massive sky whale. I wonder if I breathed too much fishy whale breath and am hallucinating.

What could be better than snuggling in the bow of the big boat, gazing upwards and finding cetacean cloud forms gazing down at me? Whale angels flying around the sky with long, flowing, graceful pectoral fins, stretching to the edges of the Universe.

The water was so clear today and so calm. I feel such gratitude just to be close to the whales, to see them in the distance as they blow or breach or lob tail or fin slap. What is this strange magic here on the Silver Bank? I feel inebriated with wild, white-breathed whale blows.

I sense myself changing rapidly as I become one with the Ocean and Her singers, the voice of the Sea. The only thing to do is surrender to it, let go and be in the salt-water flow.

——

Whale Notes: A Rowdy Group is a group of whales that includes a female and possibly a calf, her escort and at least one challenger (male). They move very fast and get very physical with one another. The explosive power in these massive animals is truly mind-blowing. Humpback males are 45 to 50 feet in length. Females are 50 to 55 feet in length but size varies just as it does in humans. Adults weigh between 25 and 40 TONS! Calves are born about 15 feet in length and weigh around a ton.

Photography Notes: Surface shots are with a Nikon D300, a Nikon 70-200mm lens with a 2x converter. Some of these images are at 600mm. Very few are cropped…the whales were so close in some shots I couldn’t frame their entire fluke (tail) in the image. The auto-focus function was far too slow so I manually focused all surface shots. This was undoubtedly the most difficult and challenging shooting I’ve ever done. Trying to keep the camera and lens dry, balance in a moving boat while manually focusing on fast-moving whales was tough. I was delighted that many of my shots were actually in focus…and quite surprised. I would focus on where I guessed the whale would surface and had my shutter on continuous fire. I set the lowest aperture (5.6 with the converter) and let the camera choose the shutter speed which worked very, very well.

Entry One from the Whale Diary can be found at this link.

Whale Dreams

By Simone Lipscomb | April 6, 2015

The shiny, black, massive body rolls past in the choppy, blue sea. My mind and heart are filled with humpback whale. Something pulls me back to waking consciousness and I realize it’s only a dream. Monday 5.15am and even though I still feel the gentle rocking of the sea, I am home in my own room, in my bed. The images dissolve as I realize where I am.

But where is home? I stood on the gunnel of the small boat as it slowly made its way to a blow of a whale and realized I had never felt so at home in my body, so at peace in my skin. I understood that home is not a place or geographic location but is a feeling, a sensation, that goes with us wherever we are. When we feel that sense of ‘home’ we are doing the right thing, on the right path, in the right place.

For as long as I can remember I have longed for humpbacks. And now my heart and mind feel as if their presence activated something deep within that I cannot yet put into words. I trust that as I continue to surrender to this beautiful life path, all will be made known.

I kept a detailed travel journal to remember and reflect and to share my experiences. Over the next few days I will post entries from the journey and invite readers to follow along and experience some of the magic of the Silver Bank where humpback whales return home to give birth and mate.

26 March 2015

Flying over ocean I see visions of the Cosmos being the home of whales and dolphins and the Ocean as a reflection of that wide, massive space. The deep indigo color touches my heart, my mind like nothing else. It activates within me a true sense of home. Shades of turquoise, indigo flecked with puffy white clouds reach out and touch me. I can feel the liquid fingers of the Ocean tapping my Heart.

Blue fades to blue. Liquid, salty bliss fills me, surrounds me and I overflow with joy and know not where I end and the Ocean begins. Perhaps that is the key. There is no end. No beginning. Only one. Unity. Bliss.

From the heat of the airport and confusion over transport to the hotel, I find myself in a hotel with grounds so beautiful it feels as if I have stepped into the Garden of Eden. Orchids gracefully arch from trees. Large, green, tropical foliage shelters walkways from the lower latitude sun.

The beautiful and comfortable room provides a place to rest and recover from the long travel day. Everywhere I turn there is beauty here. The light cocoa-colored sand is soft and welcoming. Tropical birds chirp and squawk as I attune to the sweet energy of Hispaniola.

Tomorrow afternoon we gather at the boat. By 11pm we will be underway to the Silver Bank, a reef found 80 miles offshore. This is where the whales come to shelter from high seas and to have their beautiful calves and to mate. This is where we will moor for a week and where life-changing encounters will occur.