Promises Promises

I've gone and broken that promise I made to myself.  

Not the one where I won't shout at the TV or steal my wife's end of term chocolates, but the one where I said I would never under any circumstances look up the recent sightings page of the Monterey Bay Whalewatch .

Because now I'm wobbling a bit with excitement. 

Some months ago I checked what we might expect to see in August by looking at last years sightings, but knew that 2010 was a very exceptional year so didn't want to simply expect the same in 2011.

Our history with whales has been a bit meh.

In 2004, my wife Jo and I were in Iceland searching for whales and I  made a bit of a fool of myself.  On boarding the boat we were given a briefing and told that if we spotted anything to just point and shout out its position relative to a clock face with the front of the boat being 12. This was so everyone else was made aware of the possible sighting.  

I saw something almost immediately but got confused as to where I actually was on the boat.  However, I took my duty of informing the rest of the passengers very seriously, and with the gusto of a Wimbledon line judge I squealed out about 3 random numbers at the top of my voice, repeating the last one and adding "O' Clock" to qualify it.   

I think most people just looked at me rather than in any direction I may have indicated.  I was not taken seriously for the remainder of the trip and though I continued to spot things I had no option but to petulantly announce these with a loud tut and the indolent raising of one arm. 

At the end of the trip, we had been rewarded with only half a dozen or so White Sided Dolphins.  I have a fond memory and a photograph of Jo, a solitary figure resolutely clinging to the boat railings outside whilst everyone else had long given up hope and had taken shelter from the sub zero temperatures.

Again, in 2005 we flew to Cork for the weekend in search of Fin Whales off the South West coast of Ireland.  After four and half hours in waters where for the most part the horizon was above us, we caught the most fleeting glimpse of a Fin as it came up five metres away from us. 

Despite spending most of the time kneeling over the side of the boat, I confessed I would have done it all again.  However, we did feel disappointed.

Actual Painting of Our Cork Trip

Then in December 2006 we were in Monterey, California. Whilst we had seen the odd Gray and Minke from land off the coast of the Big Sur, we were looking forward to getting much closer.  Sadly it was not to be and we didn't see a thing on our boat trip.  Our schedule meant we were due in San Francisco the next day so there was no opportunity for a second try.

We left forlornly clutching our rain check tickets and vowed one day to return.

Well that day is 10th August 2011, 

and because I looked, I know the Blue Whales have arrived,

and there's quite a few of them,

and they're 100 foot long.