September 1-3, 2021

Wednesday, September 1

Happy September!  The overcast skies and sprinkles didn’t scare away our guests nor the whales. We traveled to southern Jeffreys Ledge, east of Cape Ann, and found multiple humpback whales. But first, in our travels, we came upon a fantastic group of harbor porpoises. I didn’t get any photos, but I could have! Generally, harbor porpoises are shy and don’t stay long enough to obtain quality photos, but this group differed. I should always know to be prepared!

Our first group of humpback whales was a familiar trio: Valley, Sword, and Jawa. As they napped at the surface, we drifted along with them. The group crossed our bow as we were drifting, giving all of our guests great views

A pair of humpback whales was nearby, so we checked them out next. Quill was easy to ID, but his friend took us a little time as it was a new whale for us this season- Doric!  Some years we see Doric multiple times, and some years we don’t see him at all, so this was a great sighting. 

In the distance, another pair of humpbacks dove: Shuffleboard and Pitcher!

 A few other humpbacks were in the area, but we ran out of time.

 Our birding friends saw 2 great shearwaters, 1 manx shearwater, Wilson’s storm petrels, northern gannets, and a pair of jaegers!

 

 Friday, September 3

Friday threw us a little bit of everything. Sunny skies, clouds, rain, wind and white caps, and glassy calm seas. We also got to make a pit stop at Star Island, one of the Isles of Shoals, on our way home! Whale watching and a scenic cruise all in one!

After the remnants of Hurricane Ida passed by on Thursday, keeping us in the harbor, we weren’t sure what today would bring as far as whales. Sometimes storms move around the prey, and the whales will then follow that prey. Other times, the whales don’t seem to care at all. We got lucky, finding whales relatively close to where we had seen some on Wednesday. 

Our first pair was of two adult female humpback whales, Owl and Ebony. Ironically, both of these whales have injuries on their backs. Owl’s was likely caused by a boat strike when she was young, and I must admit, I don’t know what caused the interesting injury on Ebony’s back, but there are a few whales that have similar injuries. I’ll get back to you on that!

Ebony's unusual scar

Owl diving off Cape Ann

Next, we saw another pair of humpback whales, but this pair was a mother and her calf! Jabiru is back in the area, and her calf is looking ok after two traumatic, life-threatening entanglements in fishing gear this season.

Jabiru's calf, showing the linear laceration from being entangled in fishing gear on her back

Jabiru

The mom/calf pair approached and then passed the adult pair like two ships passing in the night.  The four whales were seen in the same area for a few minutes but not really acknowledging each other.

 

Owl diving

On our way home, we heard that a boat from Rye Harbor was having engine trouble at the Isles of Shoals and needed help bringing their passengers back to shore. We diverted course slightly to make this happen, and in no time at all, we had docked at Star Island, boarded the stranded guests, and continued right back on our way to Rye. Always glad to help out fellow mariners in need!  And I need to give kudos to the ferry boat from Portsmouth that was also docked at Star Island at the time for departing the dock momentarily to give our boat the time and space to tie up and retrieve those stranded. It was a team effort and greatly appreciated!  All three captains and crews made this appear to be a seamless operation when in reality, it was a lot of work and coordination behind the scenes to shift from our everyday routines. Love our maritime family! 

August 30-31, 2021

As August winds down, we too start to shift our schedule, now running single trips during the workweek this week. On Monday, we made our way to where whales have been scooting around. And there they were, continuing to scoot around. A personal highlight was only a few miles after leaving the harbor, even though it was such a brief look. A certain minke whale personally referred to as 'Finke,' showed itself! The Granite State has been seeing this specific whale since 2011. Today was our first sighting of this whale this season! 'Finke' refers to the fact that this minke whale is missing its dorsal fin, instead replaced with a scar. Finless minke = Finke. As per typical sightings of this whale, one minute it was there and the next, gone. Even after waiting patiently for the second sighting of this whale, it did not happen, but what a special surprise to start the day. Once offshore, we found a total of 11 humpback whales. As has been the regular recently, whales were sighted singularly and in small groups with IDed whales including Patches, Tripod, Quill, Pixar, Pinball, Gunslinger, Palindrome, Valley, Sword, and Jawa.

Valley mid-lobtail

Sprinkle in a small group of Atlantic white-sided dolphins and what a day.

Dolphins

The ocean had minimal wind or wave effects on Tuesday providing ideal conditions for spotting marine life. Plenty of harbor porpoise were seen, along with two ocean sunfish, as we headed out towards Jeffreys Ledge.

Ocean sunfish

We spent the trip with six different humpback whales. Most of them were being quite mellow. Just think to yourself, how often are you active/rambunctious during the day? Some days are made for being mellow. When you are a 25+ ton whale, you do what you want!

While a few more spouts were out in the distance, we spent time with Shuffleboard, Patches, Decimal, Doric, Gunslinger, and Frost. Though it was Decimal and Doric that abruptly livened things up. Suddenly tail breaching, lobtailing, and flipper-slapping were the norm. What a fortunate experience to witness and a phenomenal way to end the trip.

August 28-29, 2021

The weather kept us on solid ground on Saturday so heading offshore Sunday morning provided that much more anticipation of what and where we would find whales. There was initially plenty of life to look at, but all of the wrong marine variety. Fish, jellyfish, and more fish!

Ocean sunfish

Multiple ocean sunfish were sighted, at least 10 blue sharks were seen, and so many jellyfish subsurface! So we continued searching and ultimately came into an area where there were numerous humpback whales.

Individuals of the morning included Quote, Quill, Owl, Gunslinger, Valley, and Sword.

Distant look at Owl flipper-slapping

Playing with seaweed 😊

We headed back to the same area in the afternoon and spent time with eight humpback whales, with even more scattered around in the distance! We even had a group of five whales! Individuals for the afternoon were Sword, Valley, Jawa, Gunslinger, Ravine, Shuffleboard, and Owl.

Flipper

Pair of whales

A trio of whales

August 26-27, 2021

 Aug 26 AM

Thursday morning, we headed out on calm seas. The conditions made it easy for us to spot a pod of about ten harbor porpoises. We continued to Jefferys ledge to find several humpback whales. We spent time with Owl before getting a quick glimpse at a pod of about 20 Atlantic white-sided dolphins. We also had Palindrome stop by for a few looks. There were two other humpbacks in the area that we were unable to ID.

Next, we found a sleepy humpback whale named Spoon. She never showed us the underside of her fluke, but thankfully she is pretty recognizable from multiple angles. After leaving Spoon, we found a larger pod of about 50 Atlantic white-sided dolphins. This pod was more active, and many of the dolphins leaped out of the water as we took off.

We wrapped up our trip with Satula, who we first spotted as he chin breached several times ahead of us. Once we got closer, he continued showing off with a couple of tail breaches. On our way back to the harbor, we cruised through the Isles of Shoals and were able to see a few gray seals close to shore.

Aug 26 PM

The afternoon trip started pretty hot and sticky in the harbor, so it was a relief to head offshore! We first encountered a humpback named Clamp. She gave us some great close-ups! Another humpback whale, named Owl, was spotted in the distance while we were with Clamp.

We spotted flipper slapping and lob tailing in the distance, so we headed in that direction. Once we arrived, the surface activity had ceased, but we found a trio of whales. These whales began napping we were able to see their flippers glowing a green hue in the water. These three whales were Shuffleboard, Frost, and Patches (featured on the Granite State Whale Watch brochure).

The whale we visited was Spoon, who was talking longer dives. Clamp surprised us by popping up and swimming in front of the boat towards Spoon though these two never actually met up. Clamp dove quickly below the surface before Spoon followed a few minutes later. Today was the perfect day to beat the heat on the boat!

Aug 27 AM

Friday morning, we struggled to find large whales but the smaller whales made up for it. We found a group of about 8 Atlantic white-sided dolphins racing around, and then a relaxed pair of ocean sunfish! Sunfish are usually by themselves, but these two seemed to be attracted to each other. The glassy seas made for perfect viewing conditions.

 

We passed by a couple of harbor seals before finding a very cooperative minke whale! Minkes have been a bit elusive this summer, so it was fun to watch one consistently and get some great photos!

Minke whale

A couple more minke whales were in the distance before our mate Matt saw a fin whale spout further out. But this wasn’t just any fin whale. This was a fin whale escorted by a large pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins! Fin whales have been slim pickings this summer, so to make the situation even better, it was a whale that we know! Fin whale #9709 was back! After she dove, all we needed to do was to keep track of the dolphins, as they were tracking her movements from the surface. Being cautious not to get too close to the dolphins, our patience was rewarded when she surfaced right in the pod!

 

Fin whale

Fin whale with dolphins

As we watched the fin whale and dolphins, we noticed a humpback whale nearby. Eventually, we made our way over to where it was last seen, but after 17 minutes of waiting, we never saw it come back up. We headed a bit farther offshore to where some fishing boats had seen a different humpback. We waited over 23 minutes and never saw that whale either! Large whales can hold their breath for an hour, but that is rare in this neighborhood.

 

Aug 27 PM

Friday afternoon’s trip was quite different from the morning. We decided to check out some other areas that hadn’t been covered in a while. We passed just north of the Isles of Shoals and soon found several blows. A single humpback whale and a pair of humpback whales were found!  Before we could even identify all three whales, they got together to form a trio. Jawa, Valley and Sword coordinated their dives as they slowly swam towards the Isles.

 

Humpbacks near Isles of Shoals

A little further east, we found Owl who was doing some feeding! We saw bubble clouds that she was blowing to corral her prey.

 

Owl with Appledore Island

Owl with Boon Island Lighthouse

Exploring some more, we saw a group of tuna moving just below the surface and a minke whale that was acting a bit elusive. Our trek home brought us back to Owl for a few last looks.

Great shearwater paddling toward the boat!

 A distant minke whale rounded out the trip!