August 8-9, 2020

Saturday: what a day. From start to finish we couldn't have asked for better weather conditions and the sightings just kept coming. The seas were calm as could be so watching anything roaming in the ocean was a sight to be seen. During the morning trip we started with a quick look at an ocean sunfish.

Ocean sunfish

Out on Jeffreys Ledge we came across five humpback whales. All five of these whales were sleeping. Not a bad surrounding to take a mid-morning nap! Valley and her 2020 calf were in one spot while a trio consisting of Jabiru, Spoon and Quote rested in another area.

Valley diving

Valley's calf

Trio of humpback whales

We also can't forget about our Atlantic puffin sighting! Sorry birding friends, this bird was well in the state of Massachusetts.

Hello puffin!

On our travels home our keen-eyed crew spotted a small pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. A dollop of extra goodness to an already great trip!

Dolphin

The afternoon began with a larger pod of ~25 Atlantic white-sided dolphins as we ventured back offshore.

More dolphins

Before getting to the ledge our crew once again(!) directed us to an very unusual sighting. A leatherback sea turtle was at the surface. Little did we know what we were in store for as we sneaked into the area. This, the largest of the sea turtles, was having lunch! The leatherback turtle was busy chomping down on a lion's mane jellyfish, their food of choice, while 5-7 pilot fish maneuvered below the feast! There we sat enthralled as we witnessed some amazing looks at just an animal eating some food.

Lunch time for this turtle!

Remnants of the lion's mane jellyfish cascading down the sides of this leatherback turtle's mouth!

This leatherback was not letting this jellyfish out of its sight, or mouth!

It's amazing how something so simple can be so incredible. Needless to say the entire crew was blown away.

Simply incredible

Eventually we forced ourselves to leave this turtle to its delicious meal and focus back on the whales. We first began with Quote, who was regularly creating bubble clouds. Then Jabiru was briefly associated with Valley and her calf.

Quote feeding

Jabiru

Valley and her calf

As if we hadn't enjoyed enough wildlife for the day on our travels home a minke whale decided to breach multiple times in our wake! Today = an ocean safari to the utmost level. With even a fraction of the activity seen today it still would have made for a fantastic day. Sometimes even the ocean leaves us speechless.

On Sunday, a slight breeze kept us cooler offshore as we went searching for wildlife. In the morning we found Jabiru and Spoon.

Spoon and Jabiru

Spoon's flipper

These two ladies were being about as lazy as they could be and why not? Even whales need rest! The breeze was slightly stronger in the afternoon but still refreshing especially knowing what's to come with temperatures this week! Our first stop on our afternoon trip was Quote on the move.

Quote diving

Once we left her we headed to another distant blow. In a matter of a few surfacings suddenly a trio of humpback whales were together. Independently, Quote had now joined up with Spoon and then Jabiru. All three whales joined side by side.

A bubble cloud from one of our humpback whales

Whale tail

Humpback whales