Sailing with the Humpbacks

One of the delights of sailing in Vava’u Tonga this time of year is that we have
seen whales about half of the time we are out sailing. Sometimes far away, sometimes close, sometimes just a few blows on the horizon, once a whale that came nearly alongside, very often breaching, tail flukes arching and fins slapping.

We run around exclaiming, trying not to run into any reefs, fall overboard or jibe/tack while we ogle the whales.
Mostly we just enjoy them with our own eyes, rather than staring at a camera screen, but one time I took a moment to grab the long lens camera and snapped a couple of shots.

We’ve had a lot of whale encounters in Canada, near California and off the tip of the Baja peninsula but never so regularly as we have had here.

The whales have come to Tonga to have babies and make babies at this time of year and so they are everywhere.