July 10 on the Atlantic Queen - a Grand Slam Day!

Today was one of the best trips I've had this season!  It was made even more so because honestly, as we were cruising out, my expectations weren't too high - after what seemed like pretty early sightings yesterday, today we cruised for nearly 2 hours without seeing anything, and I began hoping just to see something!  Suddenly - bam!  We hit the right spot!

We got some good looks at a minke whale, and then saw blows in the distance. We cruised up to find some Atlantic white-sided dolphins - my first dolphin sighting this season!  So that was great - but then a fin whale popped up in the middle of them.  To our excitement, this fin whale turned into 3 fin whales, all swimming near the dolphins!  When we see fin whales, we usually see just one, maybe 2 at a time - so to see 3 together, and surrounded by our favorite toothed whale species, was very special and spectacular to watch!

Two fin whales, with a dolphin

One of the fin whales turned out to be our #0354 - a whale we first saw in 2003, and have seen pretty regularly since then. We haven't identified the other 2 yet, but it was great to see a whale that we recognized!

Fin whale #0354 (a whale that needs a name... can you suggest one?)

After watching the fin whales and dolphins for quite a while (and getting plenty of glimpses of whale poo- an indication that they were feeding), we turned for home.  We had another fin whale in the distance, and as I pointed it out to our interns and volunteers, we noticed another blow - then, a tail!

Half Moon

We turned back East, being careful to slowly cruise around the fin whales and dolphins, and headed out for a look at a humpback - Half Moon, a whale we've seen several times already this season, and a whale who was first sighted in 1978.  Half Moon was feeding, too - as evidenced by bubble clouds (a feeding technique that humpbacks use to "corral" fish) and... more whale poo.  After some great looks at Half Moon (including when he did an about-face and headed straight toward us and ended up circling around to our stern) we headed home - another gorgeous day on the ocean, and a GRAND SLAM - 4 species in one trip!

Half Moon - incoming!

Thanks to all the great passengers who joined us!

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