This morning we were treated to glassy calm seas and just a
bit of a swell left over from yesterday’s wind. Minke whales were abundant
throughout the trip with at least 9-10 seen!
A couple were quite close to our boat, showing us their “minke mittens”,
the white patches on the flippers.
We
continued to find a fin whale who was on the move, but at one point spent about
a minute about 200 feet below the boat. Normally we don’t know where whales are
once they slip beneath the waves, but our depth sounder was showing that the
whale was under us as we moved slowly in the direction it was traveling in.
Really neat!
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| Fin whale cruising under our boat! |
Next we found a humpback
whale. This whale, named Owl, hadn’t been seen around here
since the spring. Welcome back, Owl! This large female also decided to
show us her friendly side. As we were shut down waiting for her to resurface,
she came up right behind the boat and then circled the boat close by! The ocean
was so calm that we could see all of her underwater. So amazing, and definitely
gave us an appreciation for her size.
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| Owl |
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| Owl |
Finally, we found humpback whales, Pinball and her calf, in about the
same area where they have been spending time this week. The pair surfaced right in front of the boat
as we were waiting for them. Definitely a trip filled with curious whales!!
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| Pinball and her calf |
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| Pinball and her calf |
This afternoon, a little sea breeze cooled things off just a
little for us. We cruised by the Isles of Shoals and then did a little exploring
of areas we hadn’t seen during our morning trip before heading back to where
we had Owl, Pinball and her calf earlier.
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| White Island Light |
Owl was seen first and she was
sticking around the area. We shut down the boat and again, she surfaced twice
close to our stern and swam right by us!
She must have missed us! (joking of course).
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| Owl |
Then we found Pinball and her calf. This calf is one wiggly
little whale! Many times the calf leapt out of the water, near our boat, and
then would tail-breach and flipper slap, all before showing us how it is
practicing feeding techniques. So cute!
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| Pinball and calf |
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| Pinball and calf |
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| Pinball's calf! | |
This was really a remarkable trip with
so many views of the calf out of the water!
Minke whales were around as well, but we don’t know where our fin whale
friends have moved to. We hope the
weekend continues to be phenomenal!
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