Thursday August 1

Well today did not go quite as planned. We saw whales on both our morning and afternoon trips but those whales certainly appeared as if they had no desire to be watched for long throughout the day. Multiple Minke whales were seen all day but almost every time we made our way to where the whale was it would only spend a couple of breaths at the surface and then disappear. Relocating them once they came back up proved to work (as is usually the case) a handful of times but the whales were definitely winning in the game of hide-and-seek out on Jeffreys Ledge today. 

One of the Minke whales seen this morning

Then again all the whales always dictate what we will or won't see. They are out searching for food and if they are on the move we have to attempt to predict what direction they are moving while they spend 5-10+ minutes under the water at any given time. Ever try covering your eyes for that length of time and then trying to find someone who moved at varying speeds in a direction only the "hider" knows? Exactly....pretty challenging stuff. Today the whales reminded us that these wild animals have a mind all their own and they can, and very easily cannot, be conducive to us trying to watch them. The good news is while some whales were a bit challenging than others we did get to check out a few of our whales today. 

Minke whale near Boon Island this afternoon

The tip of this Minke whale's tail (right) and the dorsal fin (left) as it swims along the surface

We even saw a distant breach as one animal created quite the splash 3 times out on the horizon this morning. This afternoon we also got a chance to swing by Boon Island to check out the local seal hangout which ended up having a handful of these mammals both on the rocks and in the water.

Lots of seals on the rocks at Boon Island (look where the light colored rocks become darker and that's where all the seals are!)

Seals looking at us looking at them

Just as we always say, every day is different and today was just that.