Friday, July 13, 2018

Yes, it is Friday the 13th.  Thankfully, the whales didn't seem to notice.

The wind was a little stiffer than predicted this morning but that didn’t stop us from finding whales! We started out with one, then two, and finally three humpback whales all in the same neighborhood. Sedge, Satula and Pinball were moving around a lot but it seemed that at least one of them was usually at the surface. 

Satula near a boat fishing for tuna

Pinball!

Sedge

They certainly kept us on our toes as they moved in one direction, and then minutes later would be in the opposite direction!  A minke whale also surprised us with a close look before we turned for home. But to our surprise, we weren’t done whale watching yet.  As we approached the Isles of Shoals, Captain Jonathan saw a minke whale breaching repeatedly in the distance. 

That tiny white speck on the horizon is a breaching minke whale!

As we got closer, it stopped breaching but it did start screaming around at a high speed, creating quite the splashes.  Then it was time to go home…or so we thought. A fin whale surfaced close to us and this was the best look at a whale we had all morning! Fin whale #0282 swam right alongside us giving us all great views of its unique markings.

Fin whale #0282- Check out that lovely swirly marking on its back!

Fin whale #0282

 This afternoon was a little different. We ventured back to the area where we had the trio of humpbacks on the morning trip, only to find just one still there, Sedge. 

Sedge

We got a few looks at him before going off in search of the other blows that we had seen as we moved into the area. Unfortunately, those whales must have been on the move since we never relocated them.  As we continued to search the area, we found an active pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins which are always fun to see!  A harbor seal came close to the boat, and a few minke whales were spotted in transit.  We just never know what to expect from our wildlife which keeps our trips interesting!