August 12 Atlantic Queen

Good things come to those who wait. The trip started kind of slow as we headed out to the southern tip of Jeffreys Ledge. Around 3:00 we still hadn’t seen any whales, and a few of us were getting a bit nervous. Luckily the gloomy forecast that was predicted didn’t seem to be the case. It was beautiful weather out on the ocean today; a slight breeze, calm seas, and partly cloudy skies. Then just up ahead of us we spotted a minke whale.

After spending some time with this particular species we decided to check out more of the area directly off Cape Ann. We saw a humpback blow out in the distance. Unfortunately this particular humpback whale was taking 13 minute or more dives. Clearly a very shy and hungry whale. Then in the distance we saw another blow, but this time is was a fin whale. Again this fin whale wasn’t too keen on giving us some good looks at him. Then another humpback whale came into the area. This humpback was Crystal, a male that was first sighted in 1979/80 out in the Gulf of Maine. Crystal was exhibiting some bizarre behavior taking 5 breaths and then diving for 8 minutes or more, coming up for one breath, and then diving again for sometimes as little as 3 minutes. Not very consistent behavior.

Then all of a sudden Crystal started flipper slapping and rolling over. This is always such a treat to see.

With all the diving from this whale we certainly got some great looks at the fluke(tail).

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