Josephine Cubis and Dale Buchan make up the Firetree and are two of the most talented musicians we have the pleasure of knowing and having onboard Imagine. Dale has been a supporter of Imagine, and more importantly Dolphins and Whales for most of his life, so it is always a pleasure to have him and Josie on board!

The guys are cruising down the coast for their 2012 National tour and after a ‘secret show’ for the Port Stephens fans and supporters they came out for a bit of rest and relaxation. As you can see from the photos the guys picked a great day for Dolphin watching and snorkelling, the sun was out, the water was clear and sparkling in the sun, an awesome day!

The Firetree have just released their brand new EP The Morning and it is once again a great mix of both Dale and Josephine’s vocals and guitar.

You can check out their website at www.thefiretree.com for all their information. They also have a great YouTube channel and Facebook!

Sitting here in the office on Australia Day and once again Mother Nature has proved the weather forecast wrong! What an awesome day, although I wouldn’t say the sun has officially made it out, it is not from lack of trying, and best of all… no rain. The next couple of days look to be good, I think the sun will be shining tomorrow, with the wind and perhaps some more rain picking up on Sunday.

Imagine’s white whale mascot ‘Migaloo’ left the front of the office this morning to celebrate the day with a cruise around the Nelson Bay forshore.

Despite a bit of rain at the start, this week has been excellent for Dolphin watching and we have had heaps of people getting into the Boomnet and then trying the new ‘Jetnet’ craze.

Have you lazed around and enjoyed the Dolphins from the Bownet on board, or enjoyed a quiet relaxing sail…?  and then thought, hmm something’s missing! Well a Jetnet in the Boomnet could be the thing for you!

We are always asked how is the dolphin spotting or  snorkelling during the overcast light rainy days? Well the straight answer is great! The Dolphins and fish are already wet, so they are cool with it…. you are going to get wet anyway and have fun!

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Weather: For Dolphin watch crusing in the week to come we have some nice Easterly – North Easterly sea breezes with tops of 24 – 25 across the board and a bit of rain forecast here and there. One thing we always stress to guests: ‘if you are unsure about the weather or a forecast you have seen on the news, give us a call!’

The week just gone was a classic example of rain being forecast everyday and only tops of 24. Port Stephens weather ended up being sunny most days and getting up to 29!

We will let this great video speak for the Dolphin sightings this week! This video is an excellent showcase of how friendly Port Stephens Bottlenose Dolphins can be!

Tuesday 17th January 2012

The Port Stephens Bottlenose dolphins have been fantastic to watch lately as an ubundance of fish schools have been streaming through the Myall River mouth.  It’s been wonderful to watch as the pods forage for Mullett and Bream against the shallow sand bars, porpising,  jumping, and tail slapping as they round up their lunch in a glittering fish bowl!

After feeding, the Dolphins think about the ‘survival of the species’ and the amorous behaviour starts! Not bad for everyone to watch as they are not shy and often spend more time on the surface and chase each other around the boat!

The best place to watch the Dolphins swimming along the boat is the boom net as you are immersed in the water close to them.  It’s one of the best parts of a Dolphin Watch Cruise but  for extra excitement and fun you can stay in the net for a Jetnet ride, when water slashes through the net in a torrent as the boat moves at higher speed.

If you like your fun but don’t like to get wet, the Bownet is your spot, where you might be lucky to be suspended a foot away from Dolphins riding the bow wave.

Thursday 12th January 2012

Imagine gets to sail all over Port Stephens and around the offshore islands. We encounter Bottlenose Dolphins every day of the year and Humpback whales through the winter.

One of the great pleasures of taking people out to experience Port Stephens‘ waterways is some of the great photos that people send to us and some great photographers that we meet.

As you can expect we see alot of great pictures of Dolphins and Whales, but what happens when someone comes for a sail on a Seafood Dinner cruise..?

Imagine had the pleasure to take Susan Wang (Susan Wang Photography) out for the Christmas Eve Seafood Dinner Cruise where she captured these great stills. Susan has told us she is starting to get her business off the ground and after posting some of her photos onto our facebook page, we thought, ‘these are so good we’ll share them on the website!’  We are sure Susan will be out on board again in the years to come and we will look forward to more of her work!

Welcome to another great new year in Nelson Bay, we will try to keep weekly updates coming for the dolphins, snorkeling conditions, general weather and any other important info.

Weather: A bit of wet weather at the end of 2011 but for the 1st week of 2012 the weather is forecast to be excellent with temps averaging around 27 degrees. With such hot temperatures it is not uncommon to have a late afternoon thunderstorm here and there but the sun is always shining the next day!

Dolphins: As always the Port Stephens bottlenose dolphins have been great for viewing and still remaining friendly. Whilst there will not always be too much new news about these guys, we will never get tired of telling you how friendly and complex they can be as well as giving you some of our favorite interaction stories!

Snorkelling: Conditions have been excellent, the water temp is sneaking up from last week around 18 – 20. At the moment the Dolphin Watch + Snorkelling (Marine Discovery – Sail, Swim, Snorkel ) is booking out around 2 days before so do try to plan your days and bookings are a must!

As always the $35 Seafood Dinner Cruise is heading out to capture the best light of the day, we love people to try and book for this one before 3:00pm if possible