We began Thursday morning with a sighting of an ocean sunfish! These fish are always so much fun to get looks at, but aren't what we make our way offshore for, so we continued searching for whales until we came upon a pair of humpback whales, Alligator and Stance.
Ocean sunfish
As we followed along with our pair of whales, we were also able to get looks at a distant minke whale and even a fin whale, which are seemingly few and far between this season! All the while, we were also joined by a third humpback, Owl. Eventually, we moved on from these whales. After putting some distance between us and them, we were able to watch several more humpbacks, including Satula, Patches and Zodiac. While waiting for any one of these whales to resurface, Captain Pete spotted a Leatherback Sea Turtle not far from us! Our eighth turtle for the season (and the last week)!!!
Leatherback turtle - turtle power continues!!!
After spending some time with this turtle, we eventually turned our attention back towards the humpbacks, not long later we were also joined by a small and speedy pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins! Such an amazing start to the day!
Humpback diving
White-sided dolphin
Thursday Afternoon contained quite a bit of life along the surface, all contained in one small area. Similarly to the morning, our trip began with us looking at an ocean sunfish. Pressing on, we began seeing humpback whales all around us. These whales included Orion, Zodiac, Patches, Satula, Stance and Alligator.
Ocean Sunfish
Humpback diving
As we were watching these humpbacks, we also got some quick looks at two different minke whales that had been passing through the area.
Minke whale
Eventually, we headed off to a trio of humpback whales, Fan, Quote and Spika, to finish off our trip. These whales were being extremely mellow at the surface, right up until they weren't...
Spinning head breach!!!
Suddenly at one moment, Fan rushed to life and dove down quickly! We all prepared ourselves. Then, moments later, she jumped clear out of the water! Such an amazing way for us to end our afternoon.
Friday morning began with us getting to spend time with two different pods of Atlantic white-sided dolphins! These dolphins were doing an excellent job circling around the area, as we then got eyes on a few larger whales out in the distance.
White-sided dolphins
Our large whale sightings began with a sleepy pair of humpbacks, Owl and Alligator. Eventually leaving them to their morning nap, we moved just a bit further away and encountered a few more humpbacks, Satula, Zodiac and Orion. Quite a few of our whales were doing a great job of holding their breath underneath the surface. Fortunately, other marine life was making their way through the area, in the form of several minke whales, as well as a grey seal!
Grey seal at surface
At a certain point, when waiting for any one of our whales to surface, they all did! Satula and Zodiac surfaced nearby, and they were even joined by another humpback, Stance. All the while, two minke whales were also surfacing between us and the humpbacks. An excellent start to our day offshore!
Humpback surfacing
Humpback diving
Minke whale
Friday afternoon can be summed up as "absolute craziness". We started our trip with Patches the humpback, as well as two ocean sunfish that were nearby our whale.
Ocean sunfish
After moving along, we came across a trio of humpbacks, Fan, Quote and Spika. These whales remained fairly mellow, but that would be the last of that for the trip.
Humpbacks travelling
We said goodbye to our trio, and moved further along. We began watching a single humpback, Satula, while also keeping tabs on several other distant whales. One of those distant whales, began tail breaching and lobbing. As I tried to document this behavior, the viewfinder on my camera was suddenly engulfed by something else.
Holy Breach!!!
Out of nowhere, Satula displayed a spinning head breach! A very sudden but welcome surprise for all of us aboard. We remained idle for a while, watching Satula circle around, also getting quick looks at a passing minke whale. After a while, we pressed on to get looks at the other humpback whales we had been seeing. Our distant surface active humpback whales was shown to be Owl, who was also in the same area as Zodiac, and a pair of whales, Stance and Orion. We decided to finish up our trip with the pair of whales. As we thought we were getting our last looks, Orion suddenly began tail breaching repeatedly at the surface, and at the same time, disassociated from Stance. Orion continued tail breaching for some time, until they decided to switch things up with several other styles of breaching.
Flipper breach
This whale breached again and again and again. Words could no longer describe what we were seeing, so we all watched in silence as this whale continued jumping out of the water. Eventually, the clock began ticking and it was time to leave. As we did, we got to watch Orion switch from breaching to flipper slapping. Such an unforgettable afternoon.
Huge flipper!
