During our short stay in Mirissa, we decided to take in some whale watching early in the morning one day. It came highly recommended and allegedly there were a large number of whales, possibly mating, waiting for us off the coast within an hour from shore. Allegedly…
-Disclaimer: Our host arranged everything for us and before you read the rest of this let me just explain he was awesome. He is a super nice guy who recommended us to a great restaurant the night before and took care of all accommodations and transportation for us during our stay in Mirissa. Much of this post is meant to have some comedic undertones so keep that in mind. Have fun with it…-
At 6:30am, we hopped in a tuktuk waiting to take us to the boatyard from which we would embark on this voyage. There was minor chaos at the yard with all the people waiting around but it was organized. We got to our seats along the rail on the bottom level of the boat and started the trip out to sea. The whales are waiting for us!!
-Riding the rail-
About 30 mins into the trip out, we started to realize this might be a rough one. Less than 1 hour in, we had casualties. Deckhands running around, plastic bags being handed out…anti puke pills being passed out. This was more interesting than the whales…the whales that again were allegedly waiting out there just for us to see!
-I couldn’t get a wider shot but there are more people to the right and back that were hurtin’-
Look…dolphins!
-…OK…one dolphin-
Wait here is another whale…err…maybe not…
-Nope-
What is that I am feeling? Boat is about to capsize to the left….MUST BE A WHALE?!?!
-Nope-
So whale watching is a crapshoot at best. The people that arranged this and the guys on the boat were great. They provided awesome service and took care of everyone who was getting sick, even while losing a fellow crewmember to the rough seas. Breakfast was served…plenty of water etc.
I spent most of the trip up front on the rail just relaxing and going along for the ride. The rough seas made for an oddly melodic ride back to the shipyard. The water was a nice dark blue color…very relaxing…zzzzzz.
The boatyard that we launched from was a sweet sight to see. There were a lot of fishing boats and other vessels to see. You could see the owners working on them and getting them ready to go out for the day.
-Boatyard with some boats-
I think the final count of water going mammals was a bunch of dolphins and a few fin whales? I don’t know what a fin whale is so I checked Wiki and apparently it looks like this:
-Looks like a nice whale…-
I really hope we see some sea turtles in Hikkaduwa.