July 16-17, 2020

Thursday morning we steamed to the area where the whales had been hanging out for several days. We got there, looked around and didn't see anything at first. But Captain Pete spotted a blow several miles away. When we got there, we found some Atlantic white sided dolphins along with humpback whales Spoon and Bayou!  These two exhibited the same behavior as in prior trips this week- sleeping! 

Humpback whale with dolphins

They must be feeding hard (or partying) at night to need to sleep so much during the day! The cool thing about watching sleeping whales is that they spend a lot of time at the surface so we get lots of viewing time! And with the dolphins around as well, we always had something to look at!

Atlantic white sided dolphins

Thursday afternoon, we went back to that same area. This time we found dolphins and humpback whales again, but the humpback pair had switched up. Spoon was now with Pinball, one of Blue Ocean Society's adoptable whales!!  At first the humpbacks were moving around slowly while the dolphins seemed somewhat interested. Then Spoon decided to lift her 2000 lb flipper ever so slowly into the air. We had to look up to see the tip of that huge flipper! 

Spoon's 15- foot flipper!

Before we knew it, Pinball was back and was not to be outdone. She tail-breached three times right next to Spoon and then began get her abdominal workout in, doing belly-up lob tails!

Pinball tail breach

Pinball belly-up lob tail!

Spoon, the elder, could play this game. She also started to belly-up lob tail, but she threw in the extra credit points of also holding both flippers out of the water at the same time! This seems like a marvelous feat of strength to me!

Spoon belly-up lob tail with both flippers up!

Soon Spoon dove, and Pinball continued her workout by flipper slapping over and over, even with the dolphins close by!

Pinball flipper slapping with dolphin close by

This trip was one of the best of the season! I wish all trips could be this amazing!


Friday morning, our luck ran out. We scoured the area where the whales and dolphins had been since Monday with no luck, except for a good look at an ocean sunfish! The wind was causing the seas to increase so we decided to cancel our Friday afternoon trip.

We will be back at it this weekend!