My Homecoming Treat
By Lloyd Edwards

1. News

After 3 months away, I wondered what home had in store. I was in Sri Lanka doing conservation work and watching Blue whales with my family. This was followed by cruising the Aegean and Med and its wonderful islands, with Cem Kumral on his yacht. The grand finale was Antonia in Eastern Turkey, marvelling at all the ancient civilisations. Would home and Algoa Bay ever be the same?

The Boss (Karen) put me straight to work as usual! Sean Pike and I were on duty on “My China”, with a whole bunch of foreign tourists. Jake and Keith were doing some maintenance on “My Bru”. Sean said they had seen a few Humpbacks off Cape Recife recently. We slipped our moorings and headed south. Before we even left the port, we encountered a school of around 200 Indo-Pacific Bottlenose dolphins feeding. A good start.

On nearing Cape Recife, we saw the first 4 blows, 3 adults and a juvenile. They were having none of us. After a frustrating permit allocated time of 20 minutes, we let them be. The same happened a little later, this time with 2 cow/calf pairs. Again, we let them get away, without even getting close. Sean climbed down from the lookout platform and whispered in my ear, “Lloyd there are whales everywhere, but just too far away and skittish”. We resigned ourselves to failure.

St Croix lived up to her expectations, with quite a few African penguins hanging around just above the shoreline. There were plenty of scruffy moulting juveniles, which means that the fishing ban could be having the desired effect . . . although still early days. We encountered another lot of Bottlenose dolphins doing their “Spring Thing” in “Lover’s Lane”.

After the traditional cheese and tomato croissants, we headed to the port at Coega. As we were crossing the harbour entrance, I spotted a huge blow off the port bow. Sean grabbed the wheel and me my trusty Nikon Z9. And then . . . just like it was supposed to, it breached with St Croix Island perfectly positioned in the background. My favourite shots always have an Algoa Bay landmark, and this was no exception.

After all the busy places I had been to on my working holiday, it seemed so relaxed to be amongst a handful of tourists with a breaching 40-ton animal nearby. There was no one else anywhere close to us to share this amazing sight. On and on went the beast, probably around 20 breaches on the trot. As quickly as it appeared, so it slipped back beneath the waves and was gone. Next stop Antarctica!

Taken with a Nikon Z9 mirrorless, ISO 400, 200mm zoom, f/10 and 1/1600th second. It is so nice to get your favourite island exactly where you want it in the image! My first take since arriving home!

The start of the breach, which is equivalent in energy expenditure to a human running a marathon. With 20 breaches in a row, that is a pretty long race!

The flippers are the longest appendages of any animal on the planet. Here they help the animal spin in a clockwise direction. Also used for swotting killer whales, while protecting their young!

The rorqual pleats on the belly are used to increase the amount of fish taken in a single feeding gulp.

The knobs on the leading edge of the flippers seem like they are on the wrong side. Not so, as they ease the animals passage through the water.

The re-entry of a 40 ton animal, which can be seen for many miles around.