August 31 - September 1, 2019

Labor Day weekend has arrived! The summer has flown by and with it lots of trips on the open ocean. The season continues for well over another month so we continue going strong. On Saturday the trip began moments after leaving the harbor when we stopped on an ocean sunfish; three in total for the trip.

The first of many ocean sunfish

Further offshore we saw three humpback whales and a fin whale.

Fin whale spouting

The humpback whales were initially associated with each other but shortly thereafter Shuffleboard went off on her own while Owl and Reaper remained together.

Humpback whales (above and below)

On the afternoon trip we also saw multiple ocean sunfish. We checked out Shuffleboard the humpback whale (in a different spot; per usual for wild animals), a pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins and two fin whales.

Ocean sunfish

Atlantic white-sided dolphins

Fin whale

On Sunday morning five fin whales, two minke whales, Sword the humpback whale and four ocean sunfish were sighted. The fin whales were scattered around, one of the ocean sunfish breached and Sword was on the move!

Ocean sunfish swimming away

Fin whale

Surfacing fin whale

Sword the humpback whale

The afternoon trip provided four fin whales, including #9709(!), and a super quick glimpse of a basking shark.

Fin whale #9709

One of our other fin whale sightings

Two of our fin whales came together at one point, surfaced close to the boat multiple times filtering out loads of saltwater, and separated from one another just as quickly as their association formed. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!

August 26-28, 2019

Strong persistent wind kept us tied to the dock all day Monday. On Tuesday, a leftover swell from the churned ocean remained but conditions were more manageable. Tuesday morning we started with a large fin whale. This whale was being extremely consistent; 10 minutes dives and not moving far each time it surfaced. We got some fin-tastic looks at this massive mammal.

Fin whale (above and below)

We also saw a couple minke whales and four humpback whales. A trio of humpback whales were moving around together: Owl, Valley and Daffodil.

Three humpback whales

Owl

During the afternoon trip two minke whales were sighted, a pod of 15-20 Atlantic white-sided dolphins and seven humpback whales were in the area including Owl, Valley, Daffodil, Spy, Patches and Sword.

Whale tail

Atlantic white-sided dolphins moving through the waves

Pair of humpback whales

Patches the humpback whale

On Wednesday the ocean continued with leftover movement (the ocean is a vast body of water and wave-action can last for a long time depending on a few factors!). In the morning we spent time with three humpback whales: Sword, Decimal and I.T. We even checked out an ocean sunfish we saw during our travels home.

Morning humpback whale

Ocean sunfish

The afternoon trip included passing a few minke whales as we made our way offshore, four humpback whales (Owl, Spy, Sword and I.T.), two ocean sunfish and a small pod of 10-12 Atlantic white-sided dolphins.

Subsurface ocean sunfish

Owl

Humpback whale with a couple dolphins in the background

Pair of humpback whales

August 24-25, 2019

Saturday morning was one of those trips. A sun-shining day and yet, to Mother Nature, the sun is only one aspect of all that is felt out on the open ocean. The strong wind brought on lots of waves and the motion of the ocean was active! We searched some of the inshore areas; the further offshore you went the larger the wave action. Unfortunately, even with whale reports in the area we were unable to find any whales. We did briefly check out Boon Island and the seal colonies found on this baron island.

A colony of grey seals

More seals

Just a few miles from the harbor an ocean sunfish breached multiple times and we witnessed an 'interesting' encounter with this large bony fish and a baseball hat...

Ocean sunfish

As the forecast suggested the strong winds dramatically dropped halfway through the day and we found ourselves in a very different ocean in the afternoon. Even though there was plenty of leftover wave movement, conditions allowed for further offshore exploration and creatures to be found. We ended up seeing two different pods of Atlantic white-sided dolphins, a fin whale and six humpback whales.

Atlantic white-sided dolphin

Fin whale

A trio of humpback whales were together: Daffodil, Sword and Grommet. We saw distant looks at a flipper slapping humpback whale, saw the trio do a few breaches and watched Owl and Satula circle around us.

Tail breach

Owl

Whale tail

Not only do whales like to keep trips interesting, the conditions can have similar impacts! Sunday, another round of strong wind is keeping us tied to the dock. Check back this coming week for more updates from the Gulf of Maine!

Friday, August 23, 2019

The Friday, Aug 23 trips were fantastic! The morning trip found a curious young humpback whale, a mother and calf pair of humpbacks (Pinball!), and 2 other humpback whales including Owl! A couple of minke whales were also seen as well as a blue shark, harbor seals, gray seal and ocean sunfish!

Humpback diving

Curious young humpback whale

Birds!

Pinball and calf

Pinball

Owl

Ocean sunfish

The afternoon trip was awesome too with 7 humpback whales including Owl and Pinball again, several pods of harbor porpoises, lots of minke whales, harbor seals, a big grey seal, 3 ocean sunfish, 2 blue sharks, a pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins and even a very brief look at a thresher shark thrashing its huge tail!

blue shark

harbor porpoises

Patches, the humpback whale on our brochure

Owl

Pinball and her calf

harbor seal

Humpback feeding

Atlantic white sided dolphin

 The variety of marine life on Jeffreys Ledge never ceases to amaze us!