July 12-13, 2023

Wednesday, July 12, 2023

Glassy calm seas welcomed us to the Atlantic this morning as we cruised out of Rye Harbor in search of whales. We passed by a small group of harbor porpoises and a minke whale before finding a bunch of humpback whales. Pinball and her calf were seen first, with another humpback named Pitcher.  In the meantime, a curious grey seal pup checked us out! Next, we saw Satula, who was blowing deep bubble clouds to concentrate his prey. Moving on, Valley and her calf were seen along with Chromosome, a new whale to our area this season. 

In the afternoon, the sea breeze was a much-welcomed relief to the hot, humid air. We saw a total of three grey seals on this trip, along with a minke whale and five humpback whales. Valley and her calf were still in the area, and Chromosome was around, too, making a brief appearance with the pair. Pinball and her calf were not far away, and as per usual with these two, they separated for a bit before reuniting. 

Thursday, July 13, 2023

This morning, we had flat seas yet again! We passed by a couple small pods of harbor porpoises before reaching southern Jeffreys Ledge. Humpback whale, Nile, was back in the area after spending some time on southern Stellwagen Bank. We also saw Pitcher, Gondolier, and a pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins before finding Satula, and then Pinball and her calf! Dolphins have been scarce this summer so it was fun seeing them swim all around the boat. Satula was off doing his own thing, and Pinball and her calf were just chilling at the surface. Beautiful morning!

This afternoon, we headed offshore toward where whales were spotted in the morning. We first encountered a humpback with a curved dorsal fin, who we saw only a few times before it disappeared. We then saw big splashes in the distance. This turned out to be Valley and her calf!  The calf was especially active, breaching, tail lobbing, and flipper-slapping, and occasionally Valley joined in. Sometimes the calf appeared to be modeling Valley's behavior, as when she would start tail lobbing, the calf would do the same after a few seconds. There were a couple other humpback whales in the distance that were also being active, but we spent the majority of the time with Valley and calf, as the seas were picking up and we decided not to venture further offshore