Aloha,
The Humpbacks were sure singing loudly on Friday (click here for just one sound clip). Besides getting to listen to these whales, we also got to see quite a bit all day…highlights included watching Mom/Baby and Escort on our 10:00 Cruise, along with a very close breach from a different whale. A pod of Spinner Dolphins joined us briefly at the beginning of our 12:30 Cruise. We also got to see a pair of whales breaching repetitively, and occasionally simultaneously, about 800 yards away from us. By the time we got to this pod, they had stopped breaching, but they did slap their pec flippers multiple times,.and also surfaced near us a couple of times. On our Whales and Cocktails at Sunset Cruise we watched a pair of Humpbacks who were surfacing, spouting, and then diving for 17 minutes at a time. We watched through 3 cycles, wondering what they were doing underwater, and wondering how they were able to wait exactly 17 minutes before surfacing each time.
The wind came up strong on Saturday, but guests who joined us on our 10:00 Cruise were rewarded with some great sightings. Of course the most active whales were in the wind line, but as we headed out to see a repetitive breacher (this whale breached at least 15 times that we could count), we were completely surprised by a pod of two big, mature humpbacks who surfaced about 25 yards from us and then traveled slowly across our bow before sounding, giving us great views of their huge flukes. On the way back to the harbor we found a very energetic calf. This little guy breached 3 times in front of us. We never saw Mom…but we know she was underneath, and we’re guessing she was shaking her head at the antics of the kid.
Unfortunately those strong southwesterly winds continued to blow on Sunday, and we had to cancel our cruises…but those of us who had the opportunity to watch the ocean from the shoreline saw plenty of splashes all over the place. Humpbacks sure are active in the wind!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: An average size adult Humpback has 2 oval shaped blowholes that measure about 9 inches in diameter (on the bigger part of the oval). The whales use them like you use your nostrils, exhaling through both before inhaling. If an average size human had nostril openings in the same proportion to his size as a whale’s blowholes are to the whale’s body size, each human nostril would measure about an inch and a quarter in diameter.