One drizzly morning during our long voyage to Australia, somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, I heard some strange noise coming from the water. At first I thought it was only the waves. I looked at the open sea from the port side and it was relatively calm. I thought that thud and splash sound could not have come from the waves. I thought it was some dolphins. But dolphins are not that big to have created that loud splash in the water. I got intrigued by it so I decided to go out on the main deck even if it was raining to check out where the noise was coming from. I went to the starboard side, lo and behold, a MINKE WHALE was following us! We were steaming at around 18 knots and the spectacle of a whale keeping up with our speed is just awesome! I stood there and watched. It was jaw dropping. I managed to whisper “wow”. And then I froze...

Thirty minutes later it was still there! I thought this whale wanted to have its photo taken so I rushed back to my cabin and grabbed my camera. My cabin was four floors from the main deck but it felt like I was back only in four steps. As soon as I switched my camera on, I just clicked away…