EC-Rider Travels

We had a lovely relaxing day, mainly on deck 6 today – heaven – as we headed the 341 nautical miles to the Alphonse group of islands in the inner Seychelles. En route there was great excitement with the siting of what was initially thought to be a sperm whale, but on closer inspection was discovered to be a blue whale with her calf, which was pretty special. Apparently a very rare sighting (especially in this part of the world) and a first even for some of the expedition team.

Blue wales are 75-100ft and weigh approximately 95 tons. Almost wiped out with whaling, numbers are now recovering as they move to the warm Indian Ocean to calve. There is nothing for them to eat in the tropical ocean and the mothers go for up to six months, without eating, while feeding their young.

In the afternoon, we paid a visit to Captain George Hendry on the bridge, which was fun to see. He has a whole little world of his own with a very plush looking suite of rooms and then the bridge itself with more dials and screens than you can possibly imagine. He has three Officers who drive the boat, on eight hour shifts, our friend My (pronounced Me) who looked so young, I thought she was the Chef’s daughter who he had smuggled on board, was at the helm and talked us through what she was doing as if she was driving a bicycle! Captain, George responded at great length to any question we asked and excuses had to be made to extract ourselves from the Bridge, before dinner!

Later that afternoon, Tom did a great talk about bird migration. These talks really are such a treat and fascinating.