Sunday's trip started out beautifully with a light breeze from the west. As the day continued, the weather forecasters were actually correct and the wind increased dramatically. As we all know, higher wind speeds bring higher sea states! Fortunately, we got great looks at many whales before the seas really built up.
Our first pair of whales were humpbacks! One was named Victim- a female who has had at least 3 calves that we know of. Her companion wasn't lifting its tail so we haven't been able to positively ID it yet but we are working on it with only the dorsal fin to go on. **This just in- we identified Victim's friend as another female named Bat!
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| Victim diving |
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| Victim |
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| Bat! |
As we were watching this pair, we saw lots of other spouts around us. We moved on to look at another pair of humpback whales but those two were not being cooperative for our purposes and we never relocated them! I guess they didn't want to be watched today :)
As we went in search of another spout, a minke whale surfaced nearby, and then surprising us, we saw a fin whale!! Quite the variety of life out there today! At one point as we were waiting for the fin whale to surface, we spotted a blow a little further away. We were about to move towards it until we saw something huge right in front of the boat- the fin whale had come to find us!! Incredibly amazing looks at this whale- the second largest on the planet- as it passed just feet from the bow.
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| Fin whale spouting right in front of the boat |
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| Fin whale dorasl fin |
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| Fin whale swirly chevron/blaze marking |
As we waited for the fin whale, another minke popped up right next to us! The whales were certainly making our job easy today!
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| Minke |
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| Minke with notched dorsal fin |
Soon it was time to head for home as the seas were starting to build. But on our way home, we spotted more blows so we had to stop! Another pair of humpback whales! These two were not into lifting their tails either, but based on their dorsal fins, one was Pina, a female, and the other I believe was Chablis- a male.
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| Chablis |
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| Pina |
Wow- what a day! Three species of whales. Nine individuals! Fall whale watching always brings us surprises! Can't wait to get out there again soon.
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