Aloha,
We took Seasmoke and Manu Iwa out for our Wake up with the Whales Cruise on Monday, and guests on both boats had similar experiences. As we were leaving the bay, we all saw some Humpbacks breaching….but as we got to them, they quieted down. There were a LOT of whales out there though, mostly in pods of two, or cruising around by themselves. We saw lots of spouts (and even heard a few, including one or two “trumpeting” spouts from whales who were catching their breath after charging around), and though we watched the whales disappearing under the water, we didn’t see a lot of flukes. At one point, guests on Seasmoke got to watch a whale laying on her side with half her fluke out of the water, slapping the surface with her huge pectoral flipper. We also got a couple of surprise close encounters with whales surfacing about 75 – 100 yards off our bow at our 10:00 and 1:00 position. Finally, though we didn’t think we’d be able to hold the boats steady enough in the surf conditions to successfully deploy the hydrophone, it worked for each boat. And guests on each boat got to hear some very loud an clear sounds.
Mahalo and Happy Valentines Day!
Claire
Captain Claire’s Valentine Humpback Fact of the Day: A Humpback whale has a big heart. An 80,000 pound whale’s heart averages just over 400 pounds!