Earthquakes and Whales

Saturday morning when I work up, I immediately remembered that an earthquake had woken me up sometime during the night. I asked Mark if he felt it too and he said I must have been dreaming.

I wasn't.

I don't know much about earthquakes having grown up on the east coast but this one was no big deal. Mark slept through it so I think he agrees.

Saturday afternoon we went on a whale watching adventure! We booked a trip online with one of the many companies that do whale watching boat trips. The whale season in Okinawa is January to early April. In the winter, humpback whales migrate from the cold waters of Alaska to the warmer waters near Hawaii and Okinawa. (I found this website has some interesting info on humpback whales).

We boarded the boat, along with about 50 people and put on our life jackets ready to go see some whales! The boat was similar to this one (I got this photo from the whale watching companies' website) except it had a whole bunch of benches in the middle of that open space.

The sea was rough and it was raining off and on for the three hours we were searching for whales. I took a few videos to try and capture the crazy waves but they really don't show just how rough it was.

You can at least hear the reactions from everyone as the boat rocked back and forth quite a bit. 

We drove out from the harbor for quite a while in the really rough seas. I thought it was pretty fun rocking around on the crazy waves but I'm pretty sure most people had never been on a boat before and will probably never go again. So many people got seasick. Luckily they handed out sick bags when we all boarded. I'm so glad we were sitting on the back of the boat away from the enclosed group of people. We got wet from the light rain and the sea spray but it was way better than being inside, close to all the seasick people.
About 2.5 hours in, we slowed down near some other whale watching tours and were allowed to go out to the front of the boat to search for whales. The guide told us in Japanese that it was too dangerous to go up to the top level of the boat (thank you kind stranger for translating!) but most people were too sick at that point to want to move at all. Mark went up to the front of the boat and I stayed on the back and kept my eyes peeled. It was getting close to the time when we needed to started heading back when Mark saw a few sprays not too far from the front of the boat. I guess the captain didn't see it though because everyone at the front of the boat started coming back in to sit down so we could leave. Just as we started pulling away Mark saw a whale jump out of the water! I turned just in time to see the splash. At that point I think we had been out longer than the tour was supposed to be because the boat kept on going back towards the harbor. But we saw the whale (maybe whales?) jump four times as we were driving away! It was so cool. I wish we could've gotten closer but at least we saw them! I got a video but it's pretty hard to see the whale from the distance.

(view full screen and make sure it's in HD in the settings)

I'm hoping next year we'll go again and have better luck. It's so crazy to me that humpback whales jump out of the water like that and I would love to see one close up. Come visit us anytime from January to April and we'll go!

Here are a few photos I took while we were on the boat. The water was still so beautiful even without the sun shining. These photos don't do it justice.