July 4-5, 2019

July 4-5, 2019

Happy Independence Day, America!

Thursday morning’s trip was glassy calm! Nothing was getting by us! We found harbor porpoises, a grey seal, a couple of harbor seals, 3 ocean sunfish, a basking shark, 2 minke whales and a humpback whale! Talk about variety!   

Ocean sunfish

Minke whale

Sedge, the humpback whale

Our humpback whale, known as Sedge, was pretty mellow when we 1^st sighted him. But by the end of our trip, as we were heading for home, we saw splashing in the distance. It turned out that Sedge decided to do some above-surface activity including breaching, tail lobbing, tail breaching, flipper slapping and even a few barrel-rolls! 

Great finale to our trip!

Thursday afternoon was still as calm as could be. We headed out, just north of the Isles of Shoals. Just as we passed by Duck Island, we saw a humpback near some pleasure boats. This was really close to shore for a humpback whale sighting, although not unheard of. We watched Zorro for a few surfacings before he gave us the slip. Sneaky whale!  

Zorro, by Duck Island

Sedge

We moved on to where we had Sedge in the morning, looking at a couple harbor seals and 2 ocean sunfish on the way out.

Sedge near fishing gear

Sedge was still in the area as was another humpback whale, Dross.  A minke whale was on the outskirts as well as another couple of harbor seals.  We ventured out a little further and found an aloof fin whale- only seeing it briefly twice as it cruised through the area.  On our way in, we found Sedge again for a few last looks before heading home.

Friday morning, the seas were still glassy calm. We stopped on an ocean sunfish but this critter wanted nothing to do with us, so we kept going. Next we found a minke whale and stayed with it for a bit.

minke whale

We passed by a second minke, a couple of harbor seals and a huge grey seal  before seeing another ocean sunfish. This one was great! It hung around the boat giving everyone a good look at this "unique" looking fish. 

ocean sunfish 

Another minke popped up, and then we found 2 more minke whales. This turned out to be an extremely rare sightings- a mother and calf! I have only seen a mom/calf pair of minke whales once before in my 25 years of watching whales. Very cool!! The calf was awesome, frequently coming right up to the boat to check us out! We even saw the "minke mittens" :)

minke whale calf checking us out

minke whale

On our way home, we passed our 6th minke of the trip. Passing by the Isles of Shoals, we spotted a small pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins to round out the morning!

Atlantic white sided dolphins

By the afternoon trip, the wind finally decided to show itself. Our trek was a bit choppy but the breeze was welcomed on this hot afternoon.  We found 2 pairs of humpback whales! Fan and Spoon were together, and then Tripod and Chromosome were together! A 5th humpback was seen spouting in the distance.

Humpback diving

Humpback, named Fan