September 27-28, 2025

While Saturday's trip had plenty of whales once we found ourselves offshore, many of these whales were spending A LOT of time under the surface. The fun aspect was that most of the whales were in pairs when they eventually decided to show themselves. The day included eight humpback whales and two (brief looks at) ocean sunfish. 

Humpback whale surfacing

Ocean sunfish

Pair of humpback whales

Distant lobtail

Diving humpback whale

The whales we did identify included Satula, Fan, Victim, Solo, and Littlespot. Littlespot quickly became the fan-favorite when this whale breached (sorry, it was so unexpected, I didn't get a photo). For our birder friends, nothing like a Northern Flicker flying by to say hello. 😀

Northern Flicker!

On Sunday's trip, our first stop for wildlife was just past the Isles of Shoals. We spent time with a pod of approximately 55 Atlantic white-sided dolphins. 

Atlantic white-sided dolphins

This tight-knit pod was fun to watch moseying back and forth. Further offshore, we spent time with a pair of humpback whales: Littlespot and Pylon. 

Humpback whale

We attempted to check out a couple of other spouts we saw out in the distance, but these whales appeared and disappeared just as quickly. We ended up crossing paths with Littlespot and Pylon again, along with an ocean sunfish, during our travels home. 

Humpback whales

Ocea sunfish

Friday, September 26, 2025

Today felt more like a summer day on the water than one in late September. Clear skies, warm air, and a slight breeze made for optimal conditions. We started our trip by finding a group of about 75 Atlantic white-sided dolphins who appeared to be feeding—moving quickly at the surface and frequently changing directions. Several times, the dolphins approached our boat and swam right next to us! Beautiful!

Soon, we saw some spouts in the distance. A pair of humpback whales was moving slowly around the area. In the same spot, just 100 yards off our bow, we caught glimpses of a minke whale lunging through the surface waters!

We found another humpback whale by itself before finding another pair! Also in the area was an ocean sunfish, but it disappeared before most of us could admire it.

 

As we were thinking about heading in, we saw yet more blows not too far away. This was the third pair of humpbacks! All the humpbacks were pretty chill today, maybe starting to stockpile their energy for their upcoming migration later this fall.

Identified whales included Fan, Spoon, Pylon, Victim, and Littlespot!

September 20, 2025

 Saturday's whale watch got off to a very early start with a trio of humpback whales resting near the surface, accompanied by a pod of at least 50 Atlantic white-sided dolphins!

Humpback surfacing behind dolphins

Trio of humpback whales

Our trio of humpbacks consisted of Valley, Victim and Solo. Much of our time with these animals was spent watching them rest. That was until we were about to continue along. Our whales were back behind us, then all of the sudden there was a footprint formed right off of our starboard side, and finally all three whales lunged horizontally at the surface right off of our bow!

Aftermath of surface feeding

It all happened so quickly, we barely had any time to process what was happening before it was all said and done. After this, our whales resumed their naps near the surface, with the exception of Victim, who decided to tail breach and tail lob once respectively before resting again. 

Juvenile dolphin

Finally, we pressed on to do some more searching, eventually coming across two more humpback whales, Clamp and Streetlight. 

Clamp diving

While Streetlight was traveling out in the distance, Clamp was surfacing very close by, evidently doing some feeding beneath the surface, seen through old bubble clouds rising up to the surface shortly after she would. Finally, it was time for us to head home. A truly excellent way to spend our Saturday out on the water!

September 21, 2025

The ocean provided a stunning backdrop for searching for whales today, and the whales were just as beautiful. The day included 10 humpback whales(!), a couple of ocean sunfish, a few brief looks at a couple of blue sharks, and plenty of seals along the way. 

Ocean sunfish

Pair of humpback whales

Diving humpback whale

Most of our whales were in pairs or trios, with many of them napping. Individuals included Spoon, Chromosome, Quote, Satula, Partition, Grommet, Littlespot, Owl, and Clamp. 

Satula

Trio of humpback whales

Clamp

Add in multiple flipper-slapping events from two whales (Spoon and Grommet) for some special sights to an already top-notch day.

Spoon flipper-slapping (above and below)

Grommet flipper-slapping

Friday, September 19, 2025

Beautiful day for watching whales today! 

On our way out, we passed by two large pods of harbor porpoises before finding some large whales. We saw four humpback whales at our first stop—two singles and one pair. 

One whale was slowly traveling while another was circling and even approached the boat! The pair was moving around the area, side by side, mostly coordinating their dives almost perfectly! These whales were Patches, Streetlight, Solo, and Spoon. 

We moved to a different area and found three humpback whales, slightly spread out. Most of our time was spent with Owl, while Clamp and Satula were seen in the distance. Satula breached once in the distance but quickly calmed down and swam alongside us before diving. 

    

As we were about to head home, a fin whale was seen nearby! Fin whales are enormous- the second-largest whale on the planet! But we were out of time and had to start our trek back to the harbor.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the weekend brings!

September 17, 2025

We ventured offshore on Wednesday to some beautiful sea conditions that made spotting whales as easy as it comes! Our trip started with a single, sleepy humpback whale, Jabiru. After spending some time with this whale, we were able to spot the spout of another whale out in the distance. We said goodbye to Jabiru and then made our way over to our next humpback whale, Clamp.

Clamp Kick-feeding

Clamp filtering saltwater

Distant fluke

Clamp put on an incredible display of surface feeding behavior while we sat by idle. Eventually, we decided to press on, seeing another whale nearby. On our way over, we got a brief glimpse at a blue shark.

Blue shark dorsal and tail fin

Our next whale turned out to be Valley the humpback whale, who was spending quite a bit of time underneath the surface.

On our travels back in towards Rye, we encountered Clamp once again, but this time there was another pair of humpback whales traveling through the area. After waiting out a surfacing, these whales were revealed to be Grommet and Partition.

Grommet diving

September 13-14, 2025

While whales were waiting for us offshore on Saturday, so was the wind (which has been a regular this month, quite unwelcome, and was not in the original forecast). Even in the waves, though, it is always impressive to watch whales move through the water with such ease. We started with a fin whale. While this whale wasn't spending too much time holding its breath, it was always surfacing in a different direction. 

Fin whale

We watched this whale for a bit before focusing our attention on another spout. This whale ended up being Pinball, the humpback whale. While watching this whale, a second fin whale surfaced nearby! The trip wrapped up with Satula, the humpback whale, moving in yet another direction.

Diving humpback whale

Fin whale

Satula

At long last, everything seemed to finally come together on Sunday. The skies were clear and the seas were calm (about time, Mother Nature, thank you!). Our first stop was on a pair of humpback whales, Fan and Repeat. These whales were being mellow, and we enjoyed watching them in the beautiful ocean. 

Humpback whale tail

Pair of humpback whales

Next on the list was a pod of approximately 30 Atlantic white-sided dolphins. This tight-knit group was casually on the move. 

Dolphins

We then spent time with humpback whales, Spoon and Valley. While these whales were mostly napping, Spoon flipper-slapped a couple times, and one of them even breached (missed on camera, but VERY impressive!)  

Spoon's flipper

We also found two fin whales, including Pacman, a quick look at minke whale passing us by, and three more humpback whales. So much to look at! 

Diving humpback whale

Fin whale

Trio of humpback whales

Quote joined up with Victim and Chromosome, and that's when more activity began. We saw flipper-slapping, tail breaching, and multiple head breaches in between napping sessions, of course. 😃 It was the full spectrum of behaviors, any one of them incredible to witness. 

Mid-tailbreach

Whale breach in flat calm seas