Thursday, August 28

No wind on the open ocean made for incredible conditions for spotting and watching whales today. Our first stop ended up being on a pair of Fin whales just beyond the Isles of Shoals.

Two large Fin whale so close to each other!

We got some incredible looks as these whales maneuvered around. It was Dingle and one of the other whales we have seen in the area over the past month. A few times these whales were charging around and a few times these whales appeared to be very mellow while spending time at the surface.

Fin whale with Appledore Island in the background

Another day, another sighting of Dingle the Fin whale!

With got some great looks as we watched these massive mammals move around together. With such beautiful conditions and some very nice looks at these animals we continued on to see what else we could come across. Soon we found ourselves alongside a very friendly Minke whale. Perhaps this whale was equally as curious about us as we were with it as almost every single time this whale surfaced it would surface so close to the boat, alternating from one side to another. What awesome looks!

Beautiful conditions to watch this Minke whale as it swam so close to the boat!

As we remained in the area we even saw a second Minke whale surface close by. Eventually we continued to do some searching and watched a few more of the 7 Minke whales seen in total throughout our travels today. Check out the photos below to see just how different each dorsal fin of a Minke whale can be and what we use to tell these whales apart from one another!

One of our many Minke whales

Another Minke whale dorsal fin

Yet another differently shaped dorsal fin from one of the Minke whales seen today

We also saw lots and lots and lots of seals in the water (well over 20 seals out in the open ocean!) as we spent time offshore.

Hello Grey seal!

Once it was time to turn for home in just a matter of minutes we saw another spout ahead of us. It was a Fin whale and not either of the ones we had seen earlier in the trip. A third Fin whale had moved on into our area. What a very nice way to end our day full of so much life out on the open ocean!

Fin whale seen on our travels home with the Maine coastline visible in the background