Friday, September 9

We have FINALLY returned from the hiatus known as Hermine! With the large swells finally subsiding you can imagine how much we were itching to get back out on the water. Well today was that day full of minimal wind and just a bit of a leftover swell now that Hermine decided to depart the East Coast. It was a Superfecta day of sightings today! Lots to see though some whales were behaving better than others. Among the multiple harbor seals and even blue shark we spotted today we also saw 4 Minke whales, 3 Humpback whales, 2 Fin whales and a pod of 60 Atlantic white-sided dolphins!

Tip of a Blue shark's dorsal fin is most prevalent in this image

Many of our Minke whales were the first sightings of the day before eventually catching up to some sneaky larger species nearby.

Minke whale

Geometry the Humpback whale was slowly moving along before we eased our way over to a pair of Humpback whales.

Geometry the Humpback whale

It was Shuffleboard and a new visitor for the season. A familiar tail, Patches, has decided to swim into our area!

Patches and Shuffleboard swimming in tandem

What a fun surprise to find Patches around especially since this whale is the whale on the front of our brochure! We spent a bit of time with these whales but soon got reports of more activity moving through the area we didn't want to miss.

Humpback whale tail

Thanks to our fishing buddies (many thanks guys!) we got a chance to spend time with a group of Atlantic white-sided dolphins.

Atlantic white-sided dolphins

We see you and you probably see us!

As is typical with these fast-paced toothed-whales they were on the move so we continued to maneuver the boat allowing these whales to lead us wherever they were heading today. But then POOF guess what suddenly showed up? A massive Fin whale! Soon there were 2 Fin whales moving independently from each other but right through the mix of dolphins!

Sleek and massive sliver of a Fin whale body while a dolphin surfaces close by

The Fin whales were being impressively sneaky, not only showing up so unexpectedly but also disappearing just as magically. These whales did not show much of themselves, minus a random roll by one of our Fin whales(!), before we found ourselves once again moving along with our toothed-whale variety.

Synchrony at its finest

After almost a week of not being on the water it was great to stretch our 'legs' again and get offshore. However, just is the case no matter what the day, who knows what tomorrow may have in store for us.