September 2, 2026

 With poor weather keeping us on land on Wednesday, Thursday marked our first outing of September! Our sightings for the day began quickly with brief looks at an ocean sunfish before we pressed on through the Isles of Shoals.

Passing by Star Island

After making our way offshore, we were able to spend time with three different pairs of humpback whales! Our first pair consisted of Quill and Cacophony.

Humpback whale

We didn't have to travel far at all before getting looks at our second pair, Patches and Prongs.

Humpback diving

After leaving behind our second pair, we came across our third, Pina and Jawa!

Humpback surfacing

Eventually, it was time to head home. As we did so, we passed by a small pod of harbor porpoise and even another ocean sunfish right before we entered the harbor. 

Poor weather is keeping us on the dock again for Thursday, so we shall see you all again on Friday!

August 31, 2026

Monday marked the initial shift from our summer season schedule to fall whale watching. Our trip included two pairs of humpback whales and a spread-out group of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. 

We first spent time with humpback whales Fan and Valley before checking out Clamp and Bungee. There were even more spouts in the distance as we bounced between the subpods of our toothed whales.

Dolphin

Tuesday's trip has been canceled due to the weather, so stay tuned for our next update once we are back on the water.

August 29-30, 2026

On Saturday morning, we spent time with three humpback whales, while another pair passed by. 

Pair of humpback whales

Humpback whale surfacing

The whales we checked out included Piña, Thistle, and Orion. We also came across a pair of ocean sunfish, quite an unusual sighting! 

Ocean sunfish

Two ocean sunfish!

On Saturday afternoon, we started the trip with guess what? Another ocean sunfish! Wow, these fish have been out in full force this season. 

Afternoon ocean sunfish

We then checked out Piña and Thistle, still in the area, and still being quite mellow. 

Humpback whale

After some searching, we spent time with a pod of approximately 75 Atlantic white-sided dolphins. These toothed whales were cruising through the water! Goodness gracious, it was almost all white water when they surfaced. Impressive!

Atlantic white-sided dolphins on the move (above and below)

More water than whale can be seen as our dolphins sped through the ocean!

As we headed offshore on Sunday morning, we stopped to check out an ocean sunfish. 

Ocean sunfish

Further along, we came across a large pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. These whales were on the move. It was fun keeping up with their pace. We then got a chance to enjoy watching humpback whales Grommet and Alligator. 

Atlantic white-sided dolphin

On Sunday afternoon, we found ourselves surrounded by humpback whales. We saw spouts off either side of the boat. Whales were moving around as we watched individuals form and fizzle different associations. At times, whales were in groups of three, four, and five. 

Identified individuals include Satula, Decimal, Whirlwind, Dross, Downsweep, Chablis, Partition, Fan, Spika, Quote, Chromosome, and Dross.

August 27-28, 2026

 Thursday morning began with a bit of swell and a decent sea breeze as we made our way offshore. Eventually, we entered an area where we had found luck with whales in recent days. As we slowly navigated through the area, we were able to get distant looks at two single humpback whales. As we did so, we could see a pair of humpback whales out in the distance, breaching and flipper slapping repeatedly. We moved over in that direction and found this pair of whales to be Thistle and Pina. 

Pair of humpback whales

Flipper slapping whale!

After spending time with this pair of whales, we were able to get a few looks at another humpback whale, Cacophony, as they made their way through the area. Later, as we were beginning to start our journey back towards home, we were able to finish off our morning with great looks at a trio of humpback whales, Spoon, Fan, and Quill.

Humpback diving

Spoon rolling on side

Thursday afternoon greeted us with some fairly intense sea conditions. The wind and waves were substantial, but that didn’t stop us from finding life offshore! As we travelled out to where we spent time with whales in the morning, we were able to stop and get quick looks at a humpback whale named Ebony. After that, we pressed on a bit further and came into an area with a number of whales at the surface. We spent time with a trio of humpback whales, Pina, Stance, and Thistle.

Trio of whales surfacing

humpbacks at surface

Not long later, these three whales were joined by two more humpbacks, Cacophony and Whirlwind. It was amazing to see these five whales travelling next to each other amidst high seas! At one point as our whales were down on a deeper dive, Stance unexpectedly jumped clear out of the water. On our travels back in, we also passed by two other humpback whales.

Humpbacks diving

Friday morning, we made our way offshore while navigating through thick fog. Once we made it to the area where we had found luck with whales the day prior, a pocket of visibility opened up for us to find a pair of Atlantic white-sided dolphins.

White-sided dolphin

We were able to get excellent looks at these two dolphins while the visibility kept getting better and better all around us. After pressing on, we were quickly able to locate a single humpback whale, Patches, before moving on to a group of four humpback whales out in the distance. We were only able to get looks at three of these whales as one of them was quick to disappear. These three whales were Fan, Partition, and Whirlwind.

Huge flipper!

Humpback whale diving

A while later we did a bit more exploring while time allowed, coming across two different pairs of humpback whales, with both pairs being quite sleepy along the ocean’s surface. Our first pair consisted of Cygnus and Spika, the second contained Pina and Thistle. While watching these whales there had also been a slightly larger group of white-sided dolphins circling around the area.

Humpback at surface

Friday afternoon began in a very exciting way! As we made our way offshore, we found our first sightings of the trip in the form of a mother/calf pair of humpback whales! Ravine, the mother, was resting along the surface as her calf would occasionally roll on its side.

Mom/calf humpbacks resting

We eventually carried on and were able to come across a single humpback as well as a nearby pair. The single whale, Patches, spent much time out in the distance, while we spent time with our pair, Thistle and Pina. While watching the pair, another single humpback, Gunslinger, surfaced and then dove out to our right. Pressing further along we could see another humpback whale being active out in the distance as it breached and flipper slapped several times. This whale, Orion, displayed a spectacular spinning head breach after we approached.

Flipper slapping humpback

All the while, more humpback whales began making their way into the area including Zodiac, as well as a trio of whales, Fan, Whirlwind, and Partition. As we spent time with this trio, we were also granted looks at a passing minke whale and some Atlantic white-sided dolphins nearby. Eventually, it was time to head home. On our travels in, we passed by another two pairs of humpback whales, as well as a larger pod of about thirty or so white-sided dolphins. So much life out on the ledge today!

Minke whale diving

Fan diving

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

Wednesday was a perfect day on the water! Clear skies and calm seas, and of course whales! This morning, we got a quick passing look at a minke whale before checking out an ocean sunfish! 

Next, we found our first of six different humpback whales. Patches was hanging out by himself but staying in the same area, making him easy to spot.

Soon, we saw several spouts in the distance- a trio of humpback whales! Owl, Quote and Reaper were taking a nap, just floating along and not caring at all that we were checking them out. We love watching the lazy whales!

Moving on, a couple more humpbacks showed up (Fan and Victim), but before we checked them out, we spent some time with a pod of about 50 Atlantic white-sided dolphins! These small animals were all around the boat, delighting all the folks onboard, including the crew!

Our trip home brought us back to the area where we had seen the trio of humpbacks, but now the whales had woken up from their mid-morning rest. Reaper was repeatedly flipper slapping while Owl and Quote didn’t seem to be phased.

 This afternoon, we found Owl again. She was initially by herself, but was then joined by Reaper.

A couple of large grey seals were bobbing in the water just before we came upon Fan and Victim, still together since our morning trip. The pair was moving toward another pair that was being watched by another whale-watching boat, so we decided to let them do their thing, and we moved off to check out yet more whales in the area. We like to give whales plenty of space and communicate with other boats out there so that we don’t have multiple boats on the same whales at the same time, whenever possible.

Another pair of humpbacks was nearby, which included Clamp, famous for her high fluke tail lob action! This one was particularly dramatic! 

We planned to watch these whales for a few minutes, but the other whale-watching boat called us to say that 2 of their 4 whales were breaching right behind us! Amazing! We caught a few head breaches from one of the whales and then followed 2 of the 4 as they moved away from the breaching whales. Soon enough, though, one of these whales started tail-breaching and tail lobbing!

Atlantic white-sided dolphins rounded out our trip as we began to head for home. These spunky animals are always crowd pleasers!

And to top it all off, just before getting back to the harbor, we saw blue fin tuna crashing through the surface as they were chasing down their meal!

Beautiful days like these are what whale watching dreams are made of!