Wednesday, July 27

Today was full of surprises. The ocean was just as pristine as possible so add that to our whale sightings and it was a stellar day.

Quite possibly not possible to have more beautiful ocean conditions

This morning we started with a great group of harbor porpoise and a harbor seal before we passed the Isles of Shoals.

Harbor porpoise

Harbor seal swimming past us

As we headed further offshore we ended up seeing 12 Minke whales and 2 Fin whales. Most of our whales were spending a good amount of time at the surface giving us some great looks at them. One of our Fin whales was a familiar fin, #0520, a Fin whale that was first sighted by Blue Ocean Society researchers in the Jeffreys Ledge area in 2005!

Fin whale

Beautiful glass-calm seas as this Fin whale surfaces for a breath of air

The highlight of the trip however, was one of our Minke whales. This whale approached the boat TWICE as we sat (with our engines off) and circled around the boat looking up at us. What an amazing look and moment for all of us on board! Just incredible. Below are photos taken by one of our passengers who was kind enough to share her photos. THANK YOU Shannon for taking these magnificent photos from the upper deck!

Photo credit: Shannon C.

Photo credit: Shannon C.

Photo credit: Shannon C.

Curious Minke whale after it was done checking us out

This afternoon our first whale of the trip was with a Minke whale just north of the Isles of Shoals.

Afternoon Minke whale

Soon we found ourselves checking out multiple Minke whales, 4 in total, during our travels.

Minke whale just beyond the Isles of Shoals

Another Minke whale we spent time with this afternoon

We then made our way over to an area where our friends on the Atlantic Queen had found a Humpback whale.

Humpback whale

Turns out it was Owl, seen just as recently as yesterday morning. Not sure where this whale has been spending her time but it was certainly nice to see her again.

Owl's tail