Sunday, August 16

Today the ocean provided plenty of life to look at throughout our time offshore. We saw both whales and fish on each of our trips and yet, as usual, they were two completely different trips all wrapped in to one day. This morning we saw 12 Minke whales as we maneuvered around the open ocean.

One of the many Minke whales that popped up throughout our morning travels

We also saw 4 Ocean sunfish, a small shark but was unable to determine the species and two Humpback whales.

Ocean sunfish at the surface

We started with #0050 creating a few bubble clouds and darting in, out, and around some fishing boats.

Humpback whale #0050

We then made our way to Quill who decided to hold the boat hostage for a bit. We turned off our engines and watched this whale continuously circle in towards and all around the boat over and over again.

Watching whales in a flat calm sea is about as perfect as you can get

We were extremely fortunate to get some incredible looks as this whale barely moved from our location the whole time we spent time in the area. What a phenomenal way to wrap up our morning trip.

Quill surfacing next to us

This afternoon, it did not take long to find a spout, except there were two! We had two Fin whale circling around the area. It took a bit of time to check out both whales as they were moving away from each other but eventually we snapped photos of both these whales.

First Fin whale we checked out

Dingle the Fin whale

It was great to find out one of these whales was Dingle. As we watched these whales move around we saw another whale, a different type of whale. A humpback whale was not far from our current location. It only took moments to have a potential match for this whale. The instant we saw the tail it was confirmed. A very familiar whale has made its way into the Jeffreys Ledge region. It was Patches! This whale is one of our favorites, for one, because it is the whale on the front cover of our brochures! This afternoon is the first time all season we have gotten the chance to see this whale. What a spectacular surprise and so close to home!

So great to see Patches for the first time all season!

Bubbles at the surface created by Patches as a way to catch fish!

With some great looks at this whale, moving around a bit and creating some bubble clouds, we headed on to do some more searching. Well can you believe in our travels not only did we see a total of 4 Minke whales but we also saw two more Fin whales, including Crow, and even a Basking shark?! Life of all kinds everywhere!

Minke whale in the area where Crow the Fin whale was moving around

Crow the Fin whale

Basking shark dorsal fin

We ended our trip with Quill the Humpback whale steadily moving through the water.

Quill

Who knows where, what, when and how much activity we may come across tomorrow but it is amazing to see just how suddenly whales can appear (and don't forget, sometimes disappear) in such a short period of time.