Illawarra Whale Watching Cruise 2023

06 June 2023 / Words by Jeff Rowe. Photos: Brendan Barr & Senia Gaunson

 To watch a 1 minute whale watch photo short, click here

For this event it was not so much about the road journey, travelling down the Princes Highway A1, as the destination. We did leave Haywards Bay early, 7.30 am, to arrive in Huskisson by 9.00 am in plenty of time for coffee and a visit to the facilities before boarding our boat for the chance to see the majestic whales migrating north up our
coast to breed in the warmer waters off Queensland. Google Maps suggested it would take 1hour and 5 minutes to travel the 83.5 km. Our run leaders, Jeff and Pam thought that was a little bit optimistic so the reason for the early start. Well, as it turns out, we got mostly green traffic signals going through Nowra, so we got to Huskisson in just on 1 hour. An easy drive with a little clearing fog at the start and light traffic.

After paying for our Whale Watching Cruise, for which we all got at a good discount, we ordered coffee, looked around the water front, chit chatted and waited for the arrival of our cruise boat. We didn’t have to wait too long. The ‘Port Venture’ pulled up at the boarding wharf. It is a very modern vessel with lots of room for moving around with
comfortable seating, which we all tried at some time during the cruise, and plenty of space along the hand rails to look out to sea when the opportunity came to sight whales.

We started boarding at 9.15 am for a 9.30 am departure. Boarding was easy and the crew welcomed everyone as they stepped aboard. The captain introduced himself and two other crew members. Some features of the boat were pointed out and the required safety talk given on how to fit a ‘Life Jacket’ if required. The captain did say that he had no intention of getting his ‘undies’ wet on this day but they had to comply with regulatory requirements.
Time to set sail. “Let go forward, let go aft”, some throttle applied to the motors and we moved gently away from the wharf. It didn’t take long and we were heading out into Jervis Bay. Over the intercom the captain described points of interest and the two other crew members wandered amongst the passengers to make sure everyone was safe and comfortable.  Jervis Bay is a large body of protected water and it didn’t take long before the boat was encircled by a large pod of resident dolphins. They came very close to the boat and it was great to see them frolic and play in their natural environment. At one point there were a number of them surfing in the bow wave of the boat.
While this was all very lovely, we had come to see whales. Continuing out further into the bay we could see lots of small boats, some fishing and others doing as we were; looking for whales. The captain was very positive about our chances of seeing a number of whales because so many had been sighted over the past week. And then over the intercom the words we had all been waiting to hear, “there she blows”.

A fine spray of mist rises into the sky as a whale surfaced and ‘blew’ followed by a tail wave. This was just the beginning, over a period of about an hour the boat moved slowly, stopped and wallowed in the swell as numerous whales swam past. What appeared to be two quite large whales swam very close to the boat, even the captain commented on their size. This was pretty special with no one being left disappointed.

As a bonus views of the cliff face at Point Perpendicular, where some absailing gents watched us from up high,were spectacular as well as the view, from the water side, up and down the coast line.
Returning to the wharf in Huskisson we passed another pod of dolphins playing and feeding as we just enjoyed the calm water and great views.
The water had generally been quite calm which was great for a few of us, as we thought ‘sea sickness’ may have been a real problem. We were prepared though as Senia had brought along ginger tablets for those who may need them. I took some and whilst they didn’t taste to good, they certainly seemed to do the trick.

Our return to Huskisson meant it was time for lunch. A thank you to the boat crew for a great time followed by a short walk got us to Club Jervis Bay, our lunch destination.
You don’t go on an MX-5 run without eating at some point. Lunch was good as we continued on with our laughter and chat. As a bonus we were joined by Rose from the South Coast Chapter.
With the shadows getting longer we, each said our goodbyes and left for home.
As a foot note 157 whales had been seen in the bay for the week until yesterday afternoon.
This turned out to be another great MX-5 event enjoyed with some lovely people.
Words by Jeff Rowe.