What an amazing week it has been for Hervey Bay! Killer Whales stranding in the Great Sandy Straits with 3 unfortunately not surviving. Eleven members of the pod are still in Hervey Bay, thankfully in deeper water away from the shallow sand and mud banks down the straits, not far from Kingfisher Bay Resort and Village. Several of the whale watch operators have been lucky enough to get up close and personal with the Killer Whales which do not seem to be worried about approaching the boats. Killer Whales have never been seen in this area before so it is a great novelty and a great educational opportunity for us all.
While all this has been happening Freedom III has not been able to participate as we were on the Slipway getting ready for the whale watch season and then we had a two day fishing charter with the team from Simrad and Bay Auto and Marine Electrical. A great time was had by all as the weather was perfect and the fish were biting pretty well. The Golden trevally gave the guys some great moments. Check out the YouTube clip and this photo below. 40+ humpbacks were sighted on the eastern side of Fraser Island while they fished and two at the top of the Bay on the return journey.
Keith tested out his new electronic and while there are some teething problems with the sounder the new radar and GPS are amazing. Having all the technicians on board for the charter was a bonus to the learning process with the new gear.
Happy to say our whale watch bookings are going really well and lots of past guests and new ones are booking in advance so they don’t miss out. The New booking system, Rezdy, is working very well. Our first day on the 2oth July, is almost half full already. We are all excited to start whale watching for 2013. We have some new crew members and some old favorites/friends helping us out as usual and the bus has a few more seats to fill. Hope to see everyone for fantastic whale encounters galore!
