Journeys for Knowledge

Every so often OIST hosts outings to help people become acquainted with Okinawa and local attractions. This weekend they were organizing a group to go out on the ocean and watch whales. Given how unique of an opportunity this is, it was hard to refuse. Skip to the bottom of this post for the photos, but I will include the videos throughout.

 

Leaving port, we set a course due west to catch up with the other boats who were scouting ahead. After half an hour of traveling, with the island a distant blur behind us, we finally made contact with a school of whales coming up for air.

 

The whales were surprisingly active, constantly coming up and down, showing off their tails for all to see. Some were even showing their tails, as you can see below.

 

We were out there for a total of 4 hours, with most of the time spent just watching the whales and slowly adjusting course to follow their surfacing. Multiple times we were about to return home, just before a new whale came out to beckon us back. Some of the best shows were in the last hour in fact.

 

One whale gave a particularly entertaining show. It would launch its tail out so fast it would flip over, and proceed to whack its tail on the ocean surface upside down. At first I thought the whale was genuinely in trouble, but it turns out it was perfectly capable of rolling over, only to flip itself over again. This repeated for about 5 minutes, before it finally became tired and swam back down.

 

Finally heading home, we had half an hour to reflect on everything we had witnessed. These whales pass through Okinawa for mating season, peacefully passing by while we drive our boats above them. As we were slowly trying to follow them, they actually approached closer and closer to our boats. One even came out head first right next to us, splashing down and rolling around before submerging again. Reaching Okinawa again, we were treated to a unique view of Cape Manza from the ocean, worn away and hollowed out over the years.

 

Having spent most of my evenings this past week working on a new Gundam project (more on that soon), it was immensely refreshing to get out on the ocean and just get away from everything. I hope to find more excuses to get out on the ocean as the weather warms up.

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