My wife is given a gift of a Whale Watching trip. I'd call it Whale Spotting.

My generous wife was given a Whale Watch trip by one of our sons. She is generous because she decided to take me with her. The operator of the trip is Manly Ocean Adventures www.manlyoceanadventures.com.au .

July in Sydney is Winter and the whales are escaping the colder (?) weather of Antarctica. Part of their journey brings them up the Eastern Coastline of Australia and past Sydney.

We are to start our voyage from Campbell's Cove near Circular Quay in Sydney Harbour.

Most people seem to know this Sydney structure / landmark.

 As Spike Milligan is quoted as writing,

I must go down to the sea again,
    to the lonely sea and the sky;
I left my shoes and socks there -
    I wonder if they're dry?

Obviously these sails have been left out to dry for too long.

These will not be powering our Whale watching boat.

Kay waits patiently for the boat's arrival.

Catching up on her reading.

So the sails are on dry land.

Our boat comes in.

Blake, the one man skipper and crew.

Plenty of seats for those waiting.

3 x 300 hp engines sure beats sails.

The intrepid 2 about to join the others on board.

The sign across the dashboard reads, Caution - Vessel frequently airborne. What, lifejackets and no parachutes? Hope its only low flying.
 

The sign across the dashboard reads, Caution - Vessel frequently airborne..

The next stop is Manly to collect more passengers. We now have a full boat.

Manly to collect more passengers. No empty seats today.

Before we leave the Manly Kayak(?) Wharf, we have a safety demonstration of the life jackets. See if I get this right; head through the big hole, arms through the straps and the belt is tied around my waist. A bit different to other airbourne craft I have travelled on but I am not expecting any problems on this trip.

We head out of Manly Cove and towards the Heads.
We turn to port (the left side of the when facing the pointing end) and we head out to sea. 

We are well underway and leaving Sydney behind us.

We keep travelling out to see and I wonder if we will meet the Whale Rider in New Zealand, a movie I suddenly remember. With this much horsepower it shouldn't take long to get there, might have an issue with fuel though.

We head due west as Blake (our skipper) has heard of the radio of sightings but of only one whale. We pass the boat who reported the sighting and Blake gives us a quick lesson on the Modus operandi of whales. They can stay underwater for 35 minutes and stay on the surface for about 6 minutes so its all eyes checking to see when a whale appears.

We continue out to sea and Blake slows the boat and we turn to the south. Its been about 45 minutes and no whales but we are on a mission and there is news of a whale north of our position. The throttle is close to the stops as we head north to get a sighting. 

 

We wait to see what lies below.

 At last we are rewarded with a good tail slapping.

All that water everywhere.

A little blow.

There she blows but it good bye not hello.

Looking out for more whales.

We were not alone out there. A flotilla of boats Whale Watching or Spotting.

Our first stop is just beyond the wharf as we return to our starting point.

More mammals playing this time in the water. Smaller but more visible.

 A quick trip down the Harbour Manly to Campbell's Cove.

 

It's the other landmark.

If you look closely, there are bridge walkers on the arch.

I normally see the Sydney Opera House from the Harley as I take tourists for rides.

The Sorsen Larsen, not a whaler.

A different angle.

A steady hand but a weird angle. This is the International Shipping Terminal.

I like sailing boats or is it a ships?

  

We disembark and decide to have a Hot Chocolate and a coffee but where is the tourist trap end of town? We walk past the queue for the Game of Thrones exhibition and it does not appear to be as long as it was at 8:30 am when we were head for the dock. Kay is not interested and I could really do with a hot coffee.

The regular places are closed along Pitt Street. Then we chanced upon an interesting little cafe / bakery called Dulce Luna Viennoiserie at 72 Pitt Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000.
I am intrigued it appears to have an Argentinian look about it. The staff are so friendly, we have to stop here. The pastries are made by Argentinian bakers, the waitess is from Peru and the barista is Italian. I have tried to find their website but keep being directed to King Street. Did I mention the chandaliers? The walls have picture of Buenos Aires and as you will see below there is a picture of a couple dancing the Tango. Kay and I resist the temptation and proceed to have a low fat flat white (coffee with low fat milk) and what is described as an Argentinian hot chocolate with dark chocolate to add to the mix. The little pasties are also delicious. One is raspberry and the other pistachio. We split each and share.

Raspberry and pistachio pasties with hot drinks.

Argentinian hot chocolate with dark chocolate which has just disappearred.

The time had then come to return home.

I hope you have enjoyed this little adventure.


Equipment:
I took 2 cameras
A Sony Cybershot HX60V but feared it would get wet so it stayed safe in its waterproof bag. 
A Kogan Action Camera just to test and compare.
I had 2 smartphones.
A Samsung Galaxy S3 with a full waterproof case with took some great shots but I had limited space to share.
A Samsung Galaxy S5 with an Otterbox case which all the above were taken with.