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Cormac is currently on a 7 day expedition from Port Elizabeth to Port St Johns. The trip is an exploratory sea-going venture to gain a better understanding of the marine life on the South African East Coast. The trip has been organized jointly by African Diver and Rainer Schimpf of Expert Tours (www.expert-tours.com).

Rainer operates from his base at Port Elizabeth and this trip has long been an ambition of his. He also runs and NGO called Ocean Messengers (www.ocean-messengers.com) which focuses on ocean conservation.

Entries in the blog catalogue Cormac’s trip and the October issue of African Diver magazine will carry a full feature on it.

Further blog entries from other parties on the expedition can be found at www.mype.co.za

Day 1

For once, the weather forecast was on the money. A lazy, calm and inviting sea greeted us on our arrival at Port Elizabeth harbour. Although it was cold and the sun had yet to break the horizon, anticipation dulled the numbness brought on by the cold.

As dawn broke, we motored out of the harbour and were treated to a beautiful soft orange sunrise which painted the gentle swells on the ocean in pastel colours.

Soon after sunrise, we found a pod of bottlenose dolphin that playfully danced in our bow-wave while out on their morning hunt for food.

We spent about 40 minutes with them and then were drawn to the sound of a whale surfacing to breathe. It was a southern right whale … in fact there were three of them and we had our choice cut out for us – which one to follow? Fortunately, the whales stayed close together and we were able to follow all three of them for at least an hour.

The southern rights drew us further out to sea where a circling flock of gannets distracted us, inviting us to investigate. As we got closer to the gannets, we found they were following a hunting bryde’s whale – more distraction! Bryde’s whales move very quickly, unlike the southern right whale and so following it was more difficult but no less rewarding and exciting.

We left the whales and dolphin and headed for the St Croix islands, right next to Coega harbour. The bird colonies on these islands have diminished since the construction of the harbour yet we saw African Penquin, Oystercatchers, Gannets, Skua and Cormorants all resting or breeding on the island.

Our plan for the day included a stop-over on Bird Island and a visit to the nearby seal colony. We delighted in spending 45 minutes being entertained by the seal pups who, unable to contain their curiosity, followed our boat with their curious heads popping out of the water at every opportunity to look at us.

Bird Island was a treat – we were pleased to find thousands of breeding African Penquin and Cape Gannets. The Cape Gannets looked particularly healthy, fat and fit. This had to be from their feeding on sardines on the annual sardine run. In fact, we were informed that 2 weeks previously there were very few Cape Gannet on the island and most had returned in the past week.

The final leg of our journey from Bird Island to Port Alfred was uneventful until we got to Kenton on Sea, that is. Here we found 5 humpback whales, two escorting a newly born calf. The calf was in a playful mood and kept spy-hopping to see our boat and entertained us for what seemed like ages.

Tomorrow, our next leg sees us travel from Port Alfred to East London. Who knows what tomorrow brings. Let’s hope for more of the same.