Weather: You could be forgiven for thinking we were approaching the winter Whale Watching season in the next few days! The swell has picked up offshore which does effect the snorkelling cruise, however the inshore conditions are still great for watching dolphins. The good news that the cooler Southerly breezes should only be around for two or three days and then the lighter North Easterlys will be back by the end of the week. There are tops of 23 degrees predicted for the rest of the week and already as I sit here in the office at 8:00am the mercury is sitting on 18 degrees. There is light patchy rain being forecast for the next week, but as always, give us a call if you have any weather concerns.

Dolphins: As always the friendly Bottlenose Dolphins have been carrying about their daily routine in the waters of Nelson Bay swimming, fishing, eating and of course taking time out to come and play with Imagine! A bit of overcast sky or the odd dash of rain doesn’t deter the dolphins from having fun, and once guests are onboard they find that Dolphin Watching is still an amazing trip no matter what the weather… You can still get close to the bow riding dolphins in the dry Bownet or see how close you can be to them in their own element in the Boomnet!

The photos we post with these blogs are always current photos from the week gone by and as you can see, there have been plenty of sunny patches and some great photo opportunities. The other interesting fact is that quite a few of our photos are taken from iphone cameras!

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

Dolphin watching in the bay:

Meet the dolphins from the calm boom net or People enjoying a Boom net ridehold on tight for a wild jet net ride! Relax a foot above the water under sail in the dry bow net or give yourself a ‘titanic’ thrill at the end of the bow sprit! Imagine has very friendly crew, 360 degree views and we love to go Sailing when conditions permit.

Port Stephens has around 90 friendly resident Bottlenose Dolphins that live in pods of 4 – 12. We quite regulary get to visit with at least two different pods per cruise!

Snorkelling Cruise :

Dolphin Watch + Snorkelling (Formerly Marine Discovery, Sail Swim Snorkel)

With two Islands to pick from depending on Man underwater with fishthe conditions, Snorkeling is quite good. Lots of different species of fish including a big Groper and even a few exotic tropical species have found their way south on the warm currents. There’s even a turtle making regular appearances at cabbage Tree Island.  Lighthouse Cove on Fingal Island is once again a hot spot for snorkeling. Some of the crew have even made friends with a Banjo Ray.

Don’t have your own snorkelling gear…? Not a problem at all as Imagine carries enough Masks and Snorkels for everyone to use for free.

Seafood Dinner Cruise

The daily $35 Seafood Dinner Cruise dinner has proven to be a winner both for families on a budget or couples wanting something a bit different than a land based restaurant.  If the weather permits guests can have a swim before dinner so to bring the swim suits! We like to say ‘ it’s the biggest pool in town’. This is a two hour cruise every evening of the week and we will run it until the end of Easter so long as the weather holds up. It’s at the best time of the day and we are usually the only vessel out on the bay and certainly the only one sailing, it’s unbelievable!…..

So what’s the menu..? We have a set menu of BBQ Fillet of Fresh NZ Hoki and Butterflied Garlic King Prawns on a bed of Salad and Mash while at anchor. We then hoist the Sails to enjoy a slice of Cheesecake for dessrt while the sun is going down!

PS: We have a licensed bar ( No BYO)

Enjoying the seafood dinner cruise.


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