August 24 Granite State

Mother Nature has continued to provide beautiful weather and wonderful whales out on Jeffreys Ledge this season.  Today was another one of those days.  Both our trips were for once actually semi-similar experiences.  This doesn't happen very often for many times whales will move on, or move out of an area, change up their behaviors, and sometimes disperse or aggregate all together.  Today not only did we get a chance to see multiple Fin whales and a few Minke whales, we also spent time with three Humpback whales exhibiting very similar behaviors at all hours of the day!

All throughout our travels today we got the chance to take a look at a few of the many Fin whales that kept surfacing sporadically on and around Jeffreys Ledge.

One of the many Fin whale spotted this morning

Large Fin whale seen this afternoon!

Amongst all the Fin whales, and the few Minke whales seen darting around, we also saw two very relaxed Humpback whales today.  Both this morning and this afternoon we came across Piña and Chablis.  All day, at least during the times we were out on the ledge (who knows if anything changed during the couple hours we were away in between our morning trip and the afternoon boats spending time out on the ledge), these two whales were napping side-by-side.  At the surface both these whales would almost appear to hover on the water's edge, as their backs bobbed at the surface, basically floating on the water just like we were. 

Morning (above) vs. afternoon (below).  Piña and Chablis stay in synchrony in their spouts and their body movements resting at the surface

As we spent time with these animals a few times they awoke this morning to slightly roll to one side (Chablis) and eventually awoke enough to snap a few pictures of their tails before once again returning to their napping position.

Chablis slowly rolling the back half of its body causing a small portion of its tail to break the surface

Chablis off on a deeper dive while Piña remains resting on the surface

The snout of Piña (left) and her dorsal fin just barely breaking the surface (right) allowing all our passengers to see this whale's hair follicle's; those bumps on the whale's head!

With some incredible looks at these whales we left them to continue with their mellow day and ended up getting a chance to see another Humpback whale.  Crystal never seemed to be heading in any particular direction and once again enjoyed getting a few looks at such a specially named whale.

Crystal going on a deeper dive this morning

Maybe tomorrow will bring more of the same or maybe something completely different but we all know there is only one way to find out!

To see Crystal tomorrow (or any of the other individual whales seen today!) or not?  That is the question...

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