On the way to Coral Nirvana.......

Lat - 64 32.37S
Long - 64 41 45W
Temp - -3.1C

Station E went really well and now we're already headed to Station AA, our most northerly station, and the station that I will be collecting corals for larval experiments at. Station E went fast, but we had two great trawls and as the night watch we're finishing up the last hour of trawl sorting, three humpback whales appeared around the ship andhung around so close we could hear them barking at one another and even got a little spray here and there. I've never seen humpbacks get so close to a ship before, it was awesome and one of the most beautiful things i've seen in a long time.

So this afternoon we headed out.........time to clean out tubes, prepare the fridges and get ready to go.......

The three humpbacks who came to hang out...

Playing on the surface right in front of our eyes...

A whale of a tail....

This is the back of the boat, the wire in the water holds the Kaston core, the white under the surface is another humpback. So close, so beautiful. 

In case there was any question as to how close they were, here is me (photo by Linda) watching one of them fluke. One of the most awesome sights i've seen in a while.....