Chapter 1: My Year of the Whale
THERE IS A NEW BLOG COMING: WhaleSwim.Travellerspoint.com
A friend recently pointed out that 2024 is the Chinese Year of the Dragon.
2024 is Paul's Year of the Whale. These are creatures by which I am fascinated and to which I am committed, down to the license plate on my car.
Three 2024 whaling adventures are on tap for me. B4 will not be joining me on any of the three; this type travel isn't her cup of tea. I will return home from my first trek just in time to accompany B4 to Europe before we return to the United States via a North Atlantic crossing aboard Cunard's Queen Mary 2. That is her type adventure.
My first whale adventure begins tomorrow; to the Commonwealth of Dominica, "The Nature Island of the Caribbean," number eleven on the New York Times list of "52 Places to Go in 2024." I hope to swim with some of the 200 sperm whales that make the island their permanent home.
My second whale expedition occurs in August when I am off to Juneau, Alaska, to join the Whale Trust Photo Expedition aboard a private 34-foot aluminum hull vessel guided by award-winning nature photographers.
The third adventure occurs in September when I will make the very long trek to the Cook Islands in the South Pacific to again swim but this time with humpback whales.
"Why whales?"
"Call me Ishmael."
173 yearsago Herman Melville wrote Moby-Dick saying, with "...nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world."
But, more accurately, by twice annually visiting Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, I see lots of humpbacks. This still photograph, taken by guest Beth Moulton while we were aboard a catamaran whale watching excursion, gives me a thrill. The movie clip was captured by me at the same time and of the same animal. But, as is my nature, I want more.
I also want to improve my photography skills and even get in the water with these creatures. "Up close and personal" is the term that aptly describes my intentions.
This will be a lengthy, possibly verbose, 28-chapter tome entitled WhaleSwim.Travellerspoint.com covering these three different nearly back-to-back expeditions. For the first, I leave tomorrow before dawn.
I think it will make a whale of a tale.
If you know of others who may want to tag along, have them go to WhaleSwim.Travellerspoint.com and subscribe.
