A Whaling We Will Go

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unlike the title song characters (Carousel) we were only watching the whales and what a show they put on for us. First we saw several small Minke whales and later a few Humpbacks. We were cruising in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and had a lucky day. Also saw many gulls, terns and shearwaters flying, fishing and floating. Two adult Humpbacks swam near our boat and would "fluke" as they prepared to dive deep only to reappear a few minutes later. We saw several different adults with unique tail markings. Some of them were know to our captain and even have names as they summer here every year.

Later we came upon a mother and calf who delighted us doing acrobatics and displaying a lot of energy. The calf is seven or eight months old and kept rolling over and over and it looked like she/he was waving to us. He would then would dive down and  breech where he would jump completely out of the water. This happened three times and very near the boat.

It was very exciting and we were happy to return to land after three hours at sea. We retreived our car and drove home stopping to eat along the way. A wonderful day.