Aloha,
On Monday’s 8:00 Wake up with the Whales Cruise, guests saw a total of 12 different Humpbacks. Most of them were “blowin’ and goin'” — just surfacing, spouting and diving. Towards the end of the cruise, we were about 2 miles south of Anaeho’omalu Bay offshore of Keawa’iki, when we saw two whales just kind of floating on the surface. These guys weren’t diving, so we stopped the boat about 150 yards from him to see what they would do. We stayed with them for about 15 minutes, mostly watching them rest and spout, and then finally dive. Captain Will decided not to move the boat…and a few minutes later they both decided to surface right alongside us! We got to watch one of them lie on his side, showing his pectoral fin and half his fluke. Besides this close encounter, we got to see some pec slapping and some surface splashes from whales further away from us.
Guests joining us on our Snorkel and Whale Watch Adventure Cruise got to see a lot of action from 8 different whales — a combination of pec slapping, tail lobbing and even a couple of breaches. Oh, and a pod of Spinner Dolphins found us and played with us for awhile too!
And on our 10:00 Cruise from Kawaihae, we saw spouts from 9 different Humpbacks. We enjoyed watching 4 breaches from whales about a mile away, but the most exciting part of the cruise happened when two whales decided to check us out, surfacing very close to our idling boat.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: When you see the spout from a whale, you’re actually looking at an interesting combination of things. Some of what you’re looking at is condensation from the whales’ lungs (the same thing you’re looking at when you see your own breath after exhaling in a cold environment); some is atomized ocean water (Humpbacks live in a wet world, and there’s always some of the ocean pooled on top of their blow holes when they surface); and…since Humpbacks don’t have cilia in their respiratory tracks (little hairs)…a lot of what you see (and occasionally feel) is actually mucus! Yuck!