...Except we didn't see any whales...
Oh well, they have a "See a Whale Guarantee" where if you don't see a whale, you can just reschedule and go again another time for free. Since this was the last whale watching cruise for the season, we couldn't reschedule this year, but they said we could go next year and just quote the same booking number as we had on Thursday (last week that is), and they will organise it for us for free! So it's all good in the end.
It was still a really great experience even without seeing the whales though, because we went on this amazing tall ship, The Soren Larsen.
It was made in 1948 and it's done quite a few rounds around the world since it was made, so it's definitely seaworthy. The ship started in northern Denmark and it was even part of the 1988 Bicentennial Re-enactment voyage, and it returned back to Britain shortly after.
It's really cool to be on it, especially when you see all the deck hands working the sails and the rigging; definitely really cool.
So apparently the ship is 44.2m long with a 19th century brigantine rig and over 20,000 square feet of canvas. It's quite big and can fit around 100 people but I think they limit it to about 50 people for safety reasons. Our group was only about 15 or so people not including the crew, so it was quite spacious.
So it's usually $249 per adult, but we got it for $99 each because of a deal on Adrenalin. I think there are always deals like that on Adrenalin or Groupon, so it's pretty good.
We made the rookie mistake of showing up at 8:30am (since it said arrive at 8:30am for a 9am start), but lucky I brought stuff to study and read. It departs at around 9:20am after everyone boards it and stuff, then it quickly sails through the harbour, and after passing the Harbour Bridge you get a shot at climbing the mast.
You get given a harness that attaches you to it and it works like a seatbelt, so if you fall quickly, it'll lock itself.
It's pretty safe and it's unlikely you'll slip and fall, but I guess it was still pretty scary because it rocked quite a bit even in the calm waters of the harbour.
My parents didn't want to climb it at first, so I went up with this family of three. It's pretty high up and it's a great view, but since it's high up, all the movements of the ship are extremely exaggerated. It's not that scary though; I was quite worried before I went up but it was quite a lot of fun!
The guy I was standing next to was really nice and offered to take this picture of me climbing down. Unfortunately there was a shadow from a rope that he didn't warn me of, so I now have a line across my face. But I still think it was a pretty good shot.
Once I came down from the mast, they served morning tea, which was yummy hot home-made pumpkin soup with a bread roll. All the food is included in the fees as well, so it was pretty good.
After morning tea we got to rocky waters, so a few people got a bit sea sick. Everyone was sitting down, some guy threw up, my dad had to lie down because he was getting sick, and I was getting quite a bit of headache (didn't help that I was reading).
After some time it got calmer though, and so we watched out for whales, but as I said we didn't see any.
Dat amazing water.
We did see this one seal chillin' on it's back though, with all its flippers stuck up in the air. It looked like it was having a lot of fun, and when the ship started getting closer it started swimming around, occasionally sticking up its tail for us. It was pretty cute.
We also saw some dolphins in the distance, but alas, no whales.
I got a chance to talk to the captain, who's a really friendly guy with quite a lot of stories to tell.
He was saying how you know, this is all about nature and you never know when the whales are going to pop up for us, but we were sailing along East-West, since the whales migrant North-South, so by going perpendicular, we should be able to catch them. There was a group of three boats in one area and he said that they probably found whales, but the rule is that you can't have more than 3 boats around a whale, so we couldn't go and follow.
Actually part of the crew have specific jobs of trying to spot whales. They kind of just looked like they were just sleeping or sitting down since they didn't help with the rigging or anything, but yeah, that was their job.
And most of the crew are actually international and on holidays working and earning a bit of money for their travels. I thought that was pretty interesting because I can't imagine working while I was on holidays, but I guess that's actually quite a smart thing to do. A lot of the cruise is just nothingness, so you get to spend a lot of time sitting and admiring the (constant and hardly-changing) view, reading (in my case; sleeping for others) or talking to the captain/crew about themselves and their stories.
For lunch we had beef lasagna, another bread roll and some salad. For afternoon tea we had muffins. There are also soft drinks, tea and coffee to help yourself to and they even have a bar but of course you have to pay extra for that.
So after some time, we started heading back into the harbour. The engine was turned off and this was when they started hoisting up the sails. Quite a few of us helped with the rigging, since it takes 16 people to hoist the main sail.
If you look closely, you can see me at the top of the mast head! That was my second time climbing the mast.
On the way back, my mum wanted to climb the mast, since after seeing me do it she wanted to do it as well. My dad at first wanted to do it, but by this time he was feeling too sea sick to do anything so it was just me and my mum. I went up first, but my mum pulled out after going up about 5 rungs. The first 5 rungs are solid wood, but the rest are rope and she's had bad experiences with rope bridges so she stopped and went back down again. So at least I had shots of me on the mast by myself.
Too bad you can't really get a good angle with the mast because the ship isn't long enough, so that pic above with the whole sail will have to do for now.
And on the way back we saw their other tall ship, The Southern Swan, which was built in 1922 and looked even bigger (and probably was since it had 3 masts).
You get back by 4pm, so it's a pretty long day, but it was really good. It didn't feel that boring or long, and was pretty fun actually.
Although when I got home and was sitting at my desk, I kept feeling like I was still constantly rocking up and down, but I think that's just because I usually have problems with my balance anyway.
So overall it was pretty fun, and it was a good deal for $100 (thanks to Adrenalin) seeing as if you don't see a whale you do the whole thing again until you see one, so it's good value for money. The ship makes it so much better than a typical whale-watching cruise, since they're all modern, plain and boring (and probably since I have this weird fascination with old ships).
If you're into that stuff, I suggest you might as well pay that little bit extra (if you can find a deal on Adrenalin or Groupon) and go on the tall ship, because it's a really good and unique experience to have.
The view of the Harbour Bridge was also truly amazing; I looked at it and just thought, "Wow, I can't believe I climbed it!" It definitely looks much more foreboding and terrifying looking at it from afar, so it's still hard to believe how easy the actual climb was!
Speaking of which (awesome segue), I forgot to mention that with each BridgeClimb you get a printed group photo shot (but you still get that on the usb/cd of photos that you purchase extra). You also get free entry into the Pylon Lookout that expires in one month, as well as a BridgeClimb Certificate!
So fancy...
You got a great deal on adrenaline and you get to go again for free. I'd say that was a win! It's too bad you all didn't get to see any whales, but the seal was adorable. He looks like he wants to play. Next time you all should take a Dramamine before you go. It helps with sea sickness.
ReplyDeleteJustin @ San Juan Sail Charter
Hi Justin, it was definitely a great deal, but unfortunately the company that we went with stopped doing whale cruises, so we actually caught the very last one! I haven't gotten around to doing any other whale watching cruises, but I'm definitely thinking about doing it soon. And thanks I will keep Dramamine in mind next time :)
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