We’re just back from another Silver Bank trip!
Straight from the log of Captain Gene:
Hello, Hello!
Thanks for joining us for the Conscious Breath Adventures Cruise Report for the week of February 10-17, 2024. It is always a pleasure to share some of our adventures with you each week. There is a lot to share this week so let’s get right to it .
This was one of those weeks that started one way and ended another. The start of our trip out was delayed a few hours by strong winds and heavy seas so there was that. But that small deviation from the norm was completely forgotten by the time we returned to shore Friday afternoon.
What happened this week? Well, the quick answer is pretty much everything, starting with a green flash sunset on the first night all the way through to whales mugging the M/V Sea Hunter at her mooring the last morning. From sunrise to sunset, variety was at the top of the agenda.
Coming into the Bank Sunday afternoon we saw loads of whales in every direction, a harbinger of what was to come. The excitement was palpable at the evening Sundowner when a green flash gave us an even bigger charge of energy.
Our first full day on the water was a good primer for the rest of the week. We had a good mix of surface and in-water opportunities, with lots chances for guests to hone their whale watching and whaleswimming skills and ease into the environment.
But the real action started the next day when we experienced a Silver Bank classic: a comfortably resting mother humpback and her calf. Mom was sleeping at a shallow depth, which means we could get a good look at her, but it was the playful calf that was the absolute star of the show. This precocious little girl was very curious about the
swimmers and would repeatedly come swooshing and swirling closely down the line on each breath cycle. She really wanted to have a look, looking into the eyes of everyone in the water. Such a sweet and happy whale! It was a textbook example of an idyllic interaction.
It doesn’t get much better than this one and the afternoon flew by far too quickly – another example of the time-distorting effects of 
“Whale Time” – but what an afternoon it was. And to top it off, on our way back to the M/V Sea Hunter we watched as a couple of whales in the distance did repeated double breaches, launching themselves skyward a half a dozen times or more.
The next day picked up where the last left off.
The weather was delightful and there was plenty of activity with both whaleboats getting to watch some spectacular surface behaviors including peduncle throws and lobtailing, and of course plenty of pec slapping.
But this was Valentine’s Day and it felt like love was in the air! Sometimes in cases like this the flirting can get a little heavy and the mood a bit more intimate. So, sure enough, our next interaction would bring all the whale romance 
we could ask for when the pair turned their attention towards us and started to dance.
Sharing a dance with a pair of adult humpbacks is a peak experience on the Silver Bank and not one that happens every week. But it was a special day and so these whales swam right up to the swimmers, rolling and spyhopping to position themselves so they could look at us with both eyes. And what a look they had! You could see their eyes, as big as grapefruit, wide open and rolling around as they really checked us out. No sleeping going on here! 
They would pass below, or in front, and circle back again and again, right-side up or upside down, round and round, close enough you could count the barnacles on their chins. What. A. Show. Words really do not adequately describe. Who could ask for more on Valentine’s Day?
But more we got, anyway, when more whales came to visit us at the mooring during the 
beautifully colorful Sundowner. The end of a perfect day.
Our last day on the water didn’t disappoint, either. Weather conditions were nearly perfect, with only a hint of air to ruffle the surface of the often-glassy sea. It was so still that hardly a sound could be heard. Which means it was the perfect conditions to listen.
Thinking about listening, we motored a short way out onto the Bank and dropped in a hydrophone. Lots of singing whales to hear far and near! Moving on a little further we tried again. More to hear and one is closer! Let’s see if we can find it…
Locating a singing humpback to swim is a process, sometimes boring and unproductive – one does not always just “find a singer”. But other times it is an exciting game of cat and mouse, with the whale in the role of the mouse (wait, what..?!). That’s how it was this time, as we listened and waited to see where a solo whale would pop up… There it is! Go go! Move a bit closer, listen again, louder now, and wait some more… There it is, go go go! Until finally you get dialed in and are close to the singer…
You know you are really close when you can hear the song right through the hull of the boat, no need for a hydrophone now…
The guide slips into the water – yep it is singing (already knew that, thanks) – marks the whale and then the guests all slip quietly into an ocean of sound…
Because water is denser than air, sound travels farther and faster through sea than sky. And because our bodies are mostly water, floating in a salty sea, the sound travels right through us, too. And there we floated as the singer hit each individual’s resonance frequency, vibrating the long bones in their arms or legs or lungs, shaking the very air we breathed moments before.
What a feeling…
After that show wrapped up we all 
started back toward Sea Hunter for lunch. But before we get there one of our fellow Silver Bank operators called on the radio to ask if we wanted to swap in on a lovely whaleswim already in progress: a mom, calf and escort asleep in the reef? Yes, please, and thank you!
So for about an hour we shared the experience of floating with the three whales on the surface of a glassy sea. Unlike the dancers from 
yesterday, these whales were complete motionless, eyes shut, floating like logs by the coral. The sun was high, skies and waters clear, and the view was fantastic. What super-chill whales.
Not wanting to overstay our welcome, after a very good look we headed back for a bite to eat.
But that doesn’t mean the day was over because in the afternoon we had a nice swim with a pair of sleepers that would give us all a good look when they surfaced.
That and some more surface action filled out the experience to a tee.
And, of course, back aboard Sea Hunter at the end of the day, we had another exciting visit from some more “cocktail whales”, the whales that, like yesterday, make an appearance during the Sundowner. They are always the life of the party! This was a small rowdy group, though, so maybe they weren’t quite in the mood to celebrate. But that didn’t stop a distant whale from breaching just beside the sunset – what everyone is always waiting for! Did anyone get the shot?! No… we were all looking over here… what an unreal day.
Finally it was Friday morning and time to go. But the whales were not done yet! During breakfast two whales swam up and “mugged” the boat, interacting very closely as they circled around for nearly ten exciting minutes. One even spyhopped so closely to the dive platform that we could have reached out and tickled its chin. Amazing.
With the whales swimming off toward the other boats, now it was okay for us to go…
And now off we go towards next week, the fourth of our 2024 season. We have a great group of guests coming out, some newbies and a bunch of Silver Bank veterans. What experiences await? Tune in next week to find out.
Until then we wish you whale!
Thanks for reading,
Capt Gene