July 1, 2026

 Wednesday morning, we stayed at the dock to let the seas simmer down from the strong overnight wind. By afternoon, we had perfect conditions for whale watching and enjoyed the cooler air on the ocean.

Our first sighting was just under an hour from leaving the dock! Humpback whale, Clamp, was seen taking short dives and slowly traveling through the area.

Clamp diving

Clamp heading towards us

We continued on to find three more humpback whales a bit further offshore. Sedge, Pinball and Satula were moving around the area, but not together. With each blow, we had no idea who was where until we could see their unique dorsal fins, or lack there of in the case of Sedge and Satula. These two have been seen frequently in the same area- perhaps they are bonding over their lack of fins 😊

Sedge

Pinball diving

Satula

Throughout the trip, as we sat idly waiting for a whale to resurface from a dive, we were caught by surprise when one would surface really close! The whale certainly know we are there, but clearly they don’t seem to care. It’s so nice to be able to watch whales in their natural habitat and know that we aren’t bothering them. 

 

June 29-30, 2026

What a relief it was, and excitement, to start the week with no fog! A clear horizon surrounded us, something we hadn't seen in a few days. Monday morning's trip started with a lone Atlantic white-sided dolphin. We know toothed whales travel in pods, so while this sighting was a bit unusual, this whale was probably looking for a pod to join. 

Single white-sided dolphin

Further offshore, we found Pinball, the humpback whale. This whale was steadily on the move, so much so that we even found this whale later in the trip because it had moved so much! 

Pinball getting a little rambunctious 😉

We also saw two fin whales, getting a few looks at one, effortlessly moving through the water. 

Such a distinctive dorsal fin for this fin whale!

On Monday afternoon's trip, our first whale was a fin whale. We haven't seen a lot of fin whales this season, so what a great way to start the trip with one of the second-largest animals on earth! We then got a chance to spend time with Sedge, the humpback whale. Calm seas + a horizon(!) + whales = Happy Monday!

Fin whale

Diving humpback whale

Tuesday morning started with an unexpected sighting, a pod of offshore Bottlenose dolphins! These toothed whales are sighted in the Gulf of Maine occasionally, but not regularly. 

Offshore bottlenose dolphins

Among these whales was a single Atlantic white-sided dolphin. What a way to start the day. 😁 

Atlantic white-sided dolphin trying to "blend in" with the bottlenose dolphins

Bottlenose dolphins in the air. This doesn't even look real (I promise, it is!). 😍

As the trip progressed, we saw four humpback whales (Highlighter, Sedge, Satula, and Spika) and a minke whale. 

Humpback whale tail

We also saw another pod of toothed whales! This time it was a small pod of white-beaked dolphins. Oh my goodness, so many rarities! These dolphins were being speedy, but still incredible to have come across.

If you look REALLY closely, you can see a white patch associated with this white-beaked dolphin

On Tuesday afternoon, the unexpected continued. We witnessed Cacophony, the humpback whale, breach multiple times. What an impressive sight! The day wrapped up with yet another pod of toothed whales. This time, a group of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. Mother Nature certainly likes to keep us on our toes; thanks!

Cacophony breaching!

Mid-tail breach!

June 27-28, 2026

This weekend, we were "treated" to fog. Plenty of fog. As fog likes to do, it comes and goes in varying thicknesses, and we saw all its variations. On Saturday morning, we checked out Spika, the humpback whale. Many thanks to our fishing friends for letting us know this whale was in the area! 

Humpback whale

The fog was rolling in and out, shifting more in than out as the day progressed... On Saturday afternoon, we headed back out to Jeffreys Ledge. The blanket of fog enveloped us during the entire trip. Even so, we got a chance to check out an ocean sunfish and a minke whale. 

Ocean sunfish

Minke whale

The fog has a mysterious beauty to it, especially when vessels seemingly appear (and disappear!) out of nowhere 😊

On Sunday, the fog was waiting for us in varying levels again. The morning trip started with a "life" whale for most of our crew. A small pod of white-beaked dolphins was spotted! These whales are rare in our area. What a surprise to find! 

WHITE-BEAKED DOLPHINS!!!

We also spent time with three different humpback whales - Spika, Sedge, and Satula. 

Humpback whale at the surface

Beautiful look at a big-winged New Englander, the humpback whale!

Satula in the fog

On Sunday afternoon, our fog-friend was waiting for us offshore. While out on Jeffreys Ledge, we had a very brief look at a humpback whale diving, but we were unable to relocate this individual. Many thanks to our passengers who helped look and listen to find it again!

June 25-26, 2026

 Thursday morning started off just the way we like it, flat and calm! Days like these give us excellent spotting conditions for animals we might not get the chance to see if there's big swells and chop at the surface. Sure enough, these conditions gave way to us finding our first animal of the day, an ocean sunfish!

Ocean Sunfish

After continuing along, we had to press our search a little further than we had travelled the day prior, but it eventually paid off as we approached an area with a few humpback whales! Our first humpback of the day came in the form of Clamp!

Clamp diving

Clamp was definitely doing a whole lot of feeding underneath the surface as she wasted no time continuously circling around us before diving again and again to forage. We decided to leave Clamp to her breakfast and continue on towards the other whales in the area. The second whale in the area we spent time with was a whale named Sedge, before moving on to our final sighting of the trip, Pinball!

Sedge's (lack of) dorsal fin

Thursday afternoon began with a bit of a breeze up as we started our way back out towards where we had found luck with whales in the morning, little did we know we were in for a treat! Our afternoon sightings began similarly as we spent time watching Sedge the humpback whale do some feeding just underneath the surface. 

Sedge diving

It didn't take long for us to start seeing other whales off in the distance. After saying bye to Sedge, we made our way over to a group of three humpback whales resting near the surface, all the while, seeing more whales off in the distance. Our trio turned out to be Valley, Fan, and Alligator.

Humpbacks surfacing and diving (above and below)

As we spent time with our trio, we were joined very briefly by yet another humpback, Chromosome. As we sat idle knowing there were several whales in the area, we were looking at a minke whale passing by when all of the sudden a loud exhale erupted just off our portside. One humpback surfaced just next to us, which I had assumed was Sedge. That was until this whale raised its tail and revealed itself to be Satula! Both Sedge and Satula are missing their dorsal fins, an injury type we don't see on too many whales, so it's always interesting to have them both on the same trip! After waiting some time for our whales to move a bit further from our boat, we continued on just a bit further to investigate a couple more whale close by. These last two whales turned out to be Pinball and Clamp.

Pinball diving

As we spent time with these two, there were several more whales we could see further off in the distance, but unfortunately there was just no time left in the trip to head further offshore. Not making it out to whales because you're so caught up in watching whales is a great problem to have!

Rain and wind kept us on land Friday morning, but conditions eased up enough for us to venture out towards the ledge in the afternoon! After making our way offshore, we started our trip with a pair of humpback whales, Valley and Fan.

Pair of humpbacks at surface

Fan diving

As we were getting incredible looks at this pair, we could see the spouts of other whales off in the distance, so we said goodbye to our whales and moved off to investigate. The first one we happened upon was Satula. We spent just a few minutes with him before we continued along towards our final humpback of the trip, Clamp!

Satula diving

Eventually, it was time to start the journey back towards home. On our way in, we got distant looks at a passing fin whale. A while after that, we were lucky to get a quick glimpse at a minke whale that decided to breach twice not far off to our left! We really never know what we are going to get when we leave the harbor!

Distant fin whale

June 24, 2026

This morning, we had a long ride out to the area of Jeffreys Ledge where we have been seeing whale activity lately. After a bit of searching, we found the humpback whale, Satula,  hanging out near some fishing boats. We had some great looks at this familiar whale before continuing on.

Soon, we saw a minke whale, and as we waited for it to resurface, we noticed a small dark fin flopping up and down nearby. An ocean sunfish! For those of you who have not encountered an ocean sunfish, these animals are quite unique in every sense. They really don’t look like they should exist, or that evolution messed up somewhere down the line. But ocean sunfish are amazing, growing to be ~10 feet in diameter and weighing up to 5000 pounds!

Another humpback was spotted in the distance, and this turned out to be Sedge! Sedge and Satula look very similar in that both of them have lost their dorsal fin over the years. We don’t see that many humpback whales who have lost their dorsal fins completely, but Sedge and Satula seem to be regular visitors of Jeffreys Ledge! 

The afternoon trip started off by heading to the area where we had left Sedge on the morning trip. As we approached the area, a humpback without a dorsal fin was spotted in the distance. This could have been Sedge or Satula again, but we didn’t get close enough to confirm. As we waited for the whale to resurface, we saw some splashing about a mile away- dolphins! As dolphins are known to move fast, we decided to leave the humpback whale and try to keep up with these fast-swimming animals.  As we caught up to the pod, we could see how large and spread out the group was. Many dolphins were leaping out of the water while some were tail-slapping close to others. Even a few calves were spotted hanging out close to their mothers. Oh, I forgot to say that these were Atlantic white sided dolphins- the most commonly seen dolphin species in our area. The pod numbered at around 100-150 individuals which is quite the sight as our average pod size is about 40.

We headed back to the area where we had the fin-less humpback whale and soon spotted a blow in that neighborhood. This whale certainly wasn’t Sedge or Satula- it had a prominent dorsal fin! Before long, this whale joined up with another humpback whale and both were identified! Valley and Alligator! These two occasionally surfaced together, but also by themselves.

After leaving the humpbacks, we got a passing look at a large grey seal as we head for home.

Beautiful day on the Ledge! 

June 21-23, 2026

Sunday was quite the day. On top of it being Father's Day and the Summer Solstice, we found plenty to look at. Once we got to Jeffreys Ledge on Sunday morning, our first find was Clamp, the humpback whale. As Clamp was moving through the area, splashing was spotted in the distance. To our absolute delight, it was a pod of dolphins, but not the type of dolphins we typically encounter. It was a pod of approximately 50 bottlenose dolphins! 

Bottlenose dolphins!

These toothed whales are sooooo much larger than our usual suspects. What a fantastic sighting.

Bottlenose dolphins on the move

Eek, look at these bottlenose dolphins! 😍

Interestingly enough, within this group of bottlenose dolphins was at least one Atlantic white-sided dolphin, moving in synchrony with the pod. The trip wrapped up with two more humpback whales - Fan and Pinball. 

Fan

On Sunday afternoon, we first started with a pair of humpback whales. Spika and Valley were swimming side by side. Pinball was also sighted as we spent time offshore. 

Spika and Valley

Pinball

As we headed for home, we were treated to more toothed whales. This time it was a pod of approximately 150(!) Atlantic white-sided dolphins. What a large pod! It was so fun watching these speedy whales move through the water. 

Atlantic white-sided dolphin

The weather only allowed for a morning trip on Monday. As we headed offshore, we checked out a minke whale in the stunningly calm seas. 

Minke whale. Look at that ocean!

Once on Jeffreys Ledge, our first spout belonged to Sedge, the humpback whale. 

Sedge

We continued searching and ultimately found humpback whales Pinball, Alligator, Clamp, Valley, and Fan. 

Humpback whale diving

Pair of humpback whales including one upside down!

Humpback whale

We also checked out an ocean sunfish, attempted to look at two different basking sharks, and even spotted a couple more minke whales along the way.

Subsurface ocean sunfish

Basking shark dorsal fin

The weather kept us on land Tuesday morning, so we headed back out to Jeffreys Ledge in the afternoon. During our offshore travels, we passed multiple minke whales. Once on the ledge, we found a pair of humpback whales, but they quickly moved off in different directions. 

Humpback whale

We first spent some time with Scylla, the humpback whale. From there, we checked out Fan, the humpback whale, who quickly grouped up with two other humpback whales, Valley and Alligator. Among the whales, we also briefly checked out an ocean sunfish.

Pair of humpback whales

Valley diving

Ocean sunfish