Whale Watching on the way to Rottnest

We left the pen early in the morning to enjoy the flat ocean in the light easterly breeze. We saw the dismasted Leewin II again, and the dented roof of the WA Maritime Museum, before we hit the whirlpool at the heads. Khalil Gibran’s lines came to mind

“It is said that before entering the sea

A river trembles with fear

She looks back at the path she has travelled,

from the peaks of the mountains, the long winding road crossing forests and villages.

And in front of her, she sees an ocean so vast, that to enter there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.

But there is no other way.

The river can not go back.

Nobody can go back.

To go back is impossible in existence.

The river needs to take the risk of entering the ocean because only then will fear disappear because that’s where the river will know it’s not about disappearing into the ocean, but of becoming the ocean.”

Several whale species migrate along the WA coast – up the coast towards warmer waters in late autumn / early winter, and back down to the Southern Ocean in spring. We saw the first humpback whale not long after leaving Fremantle, and, once we passed the big cargo ships anchored off Gage Roads, there were pods of happy whales everywhere.

The photos can’t express the amazing feeling of being so close to these creatures, some of them larger than our boat. We ended up at Geordie Bay for morning tea and got back to Freo just as the breeze was picking up.