Aloha,
Guests on Wednesday’s Wake up with the Whales Cruise got to see spouts in every direction we looked! All these whales were in the “blow and go” mode…surfacing, spouting and diving again. We spent some time at idle, and once again, patience paid off when a pod of two whales surfaced about 100 yards from us. We also saw a couple of breaches on the horizon, and when we deployed the hydrophone, heard some singers that were several miles from us.
On our 10:00 Signature Whale Watch on Alala, we spotted a pod of 3 Humpbacks charging around on the surface just past the green buoy at the entrance to the harbor. This pod stayed in the general area for our entire cruise, so we did too. They were really exciting to watch…lots of heavy breathing and even a peduncle throw or two and a breach. Though we couldn’t figure out for sure whether we were watching a female leading (or being chased by) a couple of males, or three males battling amongst themselves, we did agree it was a privilege getting to witness the interaction for as long as we did.
On our Snorkel and Whale Watch Adventure, we found ourselves surrounded by a competitive pod who were surfacing and slamming all around us…and on our Whales and Cocktails at Sunset Cruise we found Humpbacks just after we left the harbor, but the most active ones were in front of the Hapuna Beach Hotel. We cruised over and watched the whales breaching (5 times), and popping up right next to our idling boat for more than 10 minutes. The rest of the cruise was like the rest of the day…whales EVERYWHERE!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Though the Humpbacks we see average between 40 and perhaps 50 feet long, there is anecdotal evidence that the largest Humpback killed by whalers was 88 or 89 feet long. This Humpback was taken in the Caribbean.