Not being a very keen sailor I was somewhat apprehensive about spending 3 hours at sea whale watching. But then on the other hand – how exciting!! The boat held 8 passengers and left from the jetty in 
Then we saw their blows and started squealing with excitement! I know that sounds cheesy, but it really was a sight to behold! Of course all the digital cameras were taking pics, and it’s amazing how many shots we got of the sea, the waves and the horizon!! Very few of us actually caught the blows. I got a couple of shots of fins; turns out we were watching Sei whales which grow to 12m – 16m in length. After a little while we headed on to see a rockhopper penguin colony. Whilst sailing towards the colony the boat was being chased by Imperial shags, several at a time – it was bit like the ducks that Hilda Ogden used to have on her wall in 
We also spotted a number of Southern Sea Lions on a sandy beach, flanked by tussac grass. We were in a prime spot to watch the males fighting over territory on the beach. Seeing the large males with their manes of fur, it is clear how they got their name. And then we played with the peale dolphins. At first they were happy to jump out of the water at the front of the boat but then the skipper backed the boat up and they played with us, jumping, swooping and splashing on their backs.
They soaked us, and our cameras! And I am pretty sure they knew exactly what they were doing. As we made our way back we sailed along the side of Gypsy Cove. The fencing along the beach could be seen from the water, the beach was heavily mined to prevent the British landing here in ’82.