On Saturday we met some of the ex-pats and friends at Manly Skiff Club to go whale watching by sail. The only problem with the plan was that it is winter (the best time to see whales) but it meant it was quite choppy.

We all got on - after spending about half an hour discussing who got sea sick or not - not a brilliant start - and Adam and Emily were given life jackets. We were also told that the second best thing for curing sea sickness was to steer the boat - the best thing being sitting under a tree!

Once we got out beyond Manly bay, the waves really picked up and as we were trying to motor out to see the whales we couldn't just go with the wind/waves. At some points the waves were so high they were coming over the bow of the boat. After about an hour or so, I was feeling super ill - which is not like me - so I asked to steer the boat - the combination of adrenaline and focusing on the horizon stopped me feeling sick almost instantly.

One of the most surprising aspects of the trip - given how choppy the sea was - was that Adam and Emily both fell asleep!!

We were almost at the stage of giving up in our search for whales when the captain noticed about three other whale watching boats in the one area so we headed out to see them. After another ten minutes of desperate searching - hard to spot water spouts in choppy seas - we spotted the spouts - which are more like water puffs than spouts!! We then also saw the fin and back of the humped back whale as it dived back under the water - at one point it was only about 50 metres from us - the advantage of going by sail rather than in the big cruiser boats - no noisy engines to scare them away.

We then headed back in - the only problem being we were a good hour away from Manly so I had to steer the boat again to save my stomach/lunch.

Adam enjoyed himself - he decided he wants to be a sailor when he grows up but he would like it when it is not so wobbly!!

As the trip was not brilliantly successful - big waves and very few whales - the captain has offered us the same trip again but for half price - we might wait a few more weeks for the weather to improve and the later in the season we wait, the more chance we have of seeing dolphins.