September 4 Granite State

The unofficial end of summer may have come and gone (Labor Day that is) but Mother Nature certainly did a great job reminding us the true end of summer is still a few weeks away. Warm temperatures, plenty of sunshine and the wind calming itself down made for a pleasant day on the water. Add in some very nice whale sightings and we couldn't have asked for anything more. We started our trip on a few uncooperative Minke whales. These whales would surface for only a breath or two before disappearing for a while under the water. Darting all around and not being able to predict the sporadic directions of these whales we decided to head further offshore in hopes of coming across different whales that were spending more time on the surface. Low and behold we ended up finding just that. Two Humpback whales were spending time alongside each other. Who were they? Pepper and Piña! 

Pepper

Piña

These whales were seen three days ago in a completely differently location than where they were today. Who knows if the two of them have continued to be associated with each other since their last sighting but they were side by side each other the entire time we spent watching these two adult female whales today.

Piña and Pepper swimming next to each other

Piña spent most of the time napping but a few times contorted her body into a few different arches. What a opportunity to see so much of a whale's body. Sometimes even from the tip of her snout to the tip of her tail!



Piña arching her body to showcase her snout and back half of her body; what a large whale!

Piña once again maneuvering her body to bring her nose/snout and tip of her tail above the waterline

We got some incredible looks at these two whales before venturing off to look for other whale activity. 

One of our Humpback whales swims just in front of the boat

We ended up coming across another Minke whale which ended up swimming right alongside us for a bit! 

Minke whale

In total we saw 5 Minke whales throughout our travels, managing to get some good looks at some more than others. Thanks to the whales and Mother Nature for another fantastic day with wildlife!


Pepper's tail while Piña remains swimming (and breathing) at the surface

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