Thread: Whale Watching with IslandStyle Fishing aka Capt. Jerry Report

We did this excursion back in September 2009. The following is what I wrote in my Trip Report of the cruise....

Prior to the cruise I did some research on Whale Watching in Dominica. The water surrounding this island is extremely deep and as such is a breeding ground for Sperm Whales. The breeding season is November - March and there have been sightings of Killer Whales in the area during that time frame also. With Whale Watching, there are no guarantees that you'll see Whales or any other marine life, but we really wanted to experience this anyway.

Royal Caribbean offers this excursion, but to avoid the possible crowds I contacted via email a company named IslandStyle Fishing prior to the cruise to see about arranging a private tour to do this. We went back and forth with emails for a bit and I was informed that a deposit was due about 1 month prior and they would contact me. I was in the process of packing up things for the move and didn't really have the time to stay on top of this and did not hear from them. At 3 weeks prior to the date we'd be in Dominica, I got nervous and booked the ship's tour so that we would have definite plans. About a week and a half later, the company contacted me to confirm that there was more interest in this tour so we would be going after all Unfortunately, the email sounded a bit like if there wasn't any other interest, the tour would have been cancelled. I emailed them back and told them I had made other arrangements since I hadn't heard from them.

We got off the ship and proceeded to the Pier to meet up with our tour, Whale & Dolphin Encounter. Our first thoughts were that this island was absolutely stunning, but it was also very hot and humid The guy holding up our sign told us to wait in a certain area, which was in the sun. It was so crowded in this area! It seemed all tours were meeting at the same time and in the same area and there was no space to spread out so everyone was just congregated in a small section, the heat bordered on unbearable since we were sweating just standing there. We were told to meet 15 minutes prior to our tour time, but we ended up standing there for 40 minutes.

Finally the guy with our tour sign told us all to follow him where we walked down to the location to board the Whale Watching boat. While walking the distance, the guy was all over the place, first on the curb, then in the middle of the street, then back to the curb. There seemed to be a pretty large group following him and it seemed that we were starting to encounter a bit of pushing from the other people on the excursion. This is not the type of excursion that Mike and I like to do, smaller groups work for us so we can avoid this sort of thing During the walk there was a group of local guys we passed sitting on a bench and one of them was saying something and I didn't catch what he said. After we got a few feet away, Mike said to me "That guy said Capt. Jerry, wasn't that who you emailed?" Capt. Jerry is with IslandStyle Fishing so it was who I emailed. I asked Mike what he said and he told me that he was saying that he has the best Whale Watching Tour on the island

We made our way to the waiting area for our boat while there was another boat loading it's passengers. Mike and I were discussing whether we really wanted to get on the boat with the pushers (by this point we somehow were at the very back of the waiting area) or if we should go talk to Capt. Jerry We looked at the crowd and the size of the boat we were going to be boarding, there were close to 50 people and we thought it was awfully hot, humid and not enough room to do a Whale Watching excursion. We decided we didn't care that the tour was already paid for, it would be worth it to Mike to spend the extra to avoid the crowd and go talk to Capt. Jerry

We didn't know it at the time, but we were in the Ferry Terminal Building and were locked inside a gated area and needed to be let out by security. Another couple was also leaving the area because the gentleman couldn't bend his knees to get onboard the boat from the dock. We just followed them out and went in search of Capt. Jerry. We introduced ourselves to him and I told him that I had corresponded with his wife. We asked if he was going out for Whale Watching and he said sure, follow him Capt. Jerry docks his boat at the Young Hotel dock which was in the other direction of the Ferry Terminal Building. We walked up to the dock and were introduced to another person who was going on the tour who was on a land vacation. She was a travel writer doing a story on Whale Watching in Dominica and also on Capt. Jerry. There were the 3 of us and Capt. Jerry on our tour. As we were boarding the boat, Mike informed Capt. Jerry that he was waving to him this morning from the ship and took his picture! He didn't know who he was at the time and just happened to be out on our balcony with the camera as Capt. Jerry passed by the ship waving so he took a picture.

Capt. Jerry told us where all the safety equipment was onboard the boat, the Proud Mary, and also informed us that he would be staying in contact with the Ship's tour Captain so it wouldn't matter if whales were in the area, we'd know about it since they share information We were free to go anywhere we wanted on the Proud Mary so Mike went up to the flying bridge and I went to go sit on the bow of the boat with the other person onboard. We had just pulled away from the dock and Capt. Jerry said he saw something straight ahead. It was a pod of spotted dolphins. Capt. Jerry went in circles with his boat and got the dolphins to play in the wake. There were hundreds of them all around the boat! I was concerned we may hit them as there were a bunch in front of the boat in addition to the ones that were breaching in the boat's wake. I never saw so many dolphins before in my life! It looked like they were having a blast too! This lasted for about 30 to 45 minutes.

After our Dolphin encounter we were still on the hunt for a Whale encounter, but unfortunately they were being camera shy. Honestly, after the dolphins it didn't matter to me if we encountered a whale As we made our way back towards the Dock, Capt. Jerry drove the boat along the coastline and gave us some history of the different sights we were seeing. We could see the Ship's Whale Watching boat and it looked like it just went straight to the Ferry Dock without the coastal route we took.

I would highly recommend using Capt. Jerry and IslandStyle Fishing! He also does deep sea fishing trips in addition to Whale and Dolphin Watching. I think my issues with trying to set this up beforehand were due to me having so much going on and not having the time to be as on top of things. Our price for the tour was $50 per person. The ship's tour was $68 per person. The next time I would probably ask for a price to do a private charter regardless of whether there is any other interest or passengers on Capt. Jerry's tour.

Some pictures....

Photo #1 is of Captain Jerry onboard the Proud Mary, before we knew who he was.
Photo #2 is of the Dive Dominica boat that was the tour provider for Royal Caribbean, look at the crowd!
Photos #3, #4 & #5 Dolphins Note how close we are to the shoreline and Adventure of the Seas in the background!

More pictures...

Photo #1; Another dolphin
Photo #2, #3, & #4; Dominica's coastline
Photo #5; The Young Hotel dock where Captain Jerry docks to meet up with his tour passengers.

For sure, the smaller excursion! Those crowds on the ship sponsored tour inhibit viewing by those not fortunate enough to be sitting by the outside window or atop the boat.