Aloha,
We had a spectacular day of whale sightings on Thursday. We took out two boats for our Wake up with the 
Whales Cruise. Guests on Manu Iwa saw lots of different Humpbacks but were totally entertained by a very energetic calf who kept breaching and breaching and breaching. We weren’t sure if his Mom was trying to teach him how to breach, because she was doing it too…or maybe she was just getting a bit excited by her baby’s antics.
Guests on Seasmoke were MUGGED…big time…by a Humpback we decided to name Curious George. This guy hung around us for almost the whole cruise, maybe 10 feet away. He was accompanied by another whale who hung out only 30 feet from us. George kept moving from side to side, blowing, and then just twisting and diving slightly under the surface so he could keep an eye on us. At one point we were looking one direction, and he silently spy-hopped just a few feet away from us on our starboard side. When we turned our heads, there was this huge whale…looking at us. Unbelievable.
Whales Cruise. Guests on Manu Iwa saw lots of different Humpbacks but were totally entertained by a very energetic calf who kept breaching and breaching and breaching. We weren’t sure if his Mom was trying to teach him how to breach, because she was doing it too…or maybe she was just getting a bit excited by her baby’s antics.Guests on Seasmoke were MUGGED…big time…by a Humpback we decided to name Curious George. This guy hung around us for almost the whole cruise, maybe 10 feet away. He was accompanied by another whale who hung out only 30 feet from us. George kept moving from side to side, blowing, and then just twisting and diving slightly under the surface so he could keep an eye on us. At one point we were looking one direction, and he silently spy-hopped just a few feet away from us on our starboard side. When we turned our heads, there was this huge whale…looking at us. Unbelievable.
Guests joining us on our 10:00 Cruise from Kawaihae had to practice patience, but boy did it pay off. We found a lone humpback south of the harbor who was on a 20 minute dive cycle. The first time he spouted and dove he was pretty far away from us, but we motored to the area and waited. 20 minutes later he popped up just 80 yards from us and spouted a few times before slipping under the water. We waited some more, and after 20 minutes he was up, and down again. By this time, it was getting kind of late, and we almost started heading back when our lone humpback didn’t just surface…but breached just 50 yards off our port side. And then he did it again, and again, and then he head lunged twice, and then he pec slapped, and then he double pec slapped, and then he breached 4 more times. We have absolutely no idea why he was doing all this because we couldn’t see spouts or evidence of any other whales in the vicinity…and we were just sitting quietly when all the activity started!
Mahalo and have a great weekend. I’ll send out a recap of our sightings on Monday.
Claire
Mahalo and have a great weekend. I’ll send out a recap of our sightings on Monday.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Spy hopping is one of the ways a Humpback can see what’s going on above the surface of the water. Because Humpbacks have really big heads proportionally, their eyes are about a third of the way down their bodies. When the whale spy hops, she rises slowly and vertically from the water, head first. If she’s a fully grown whale, the tip of her rostrum may be 15 feet above the surface before her eyes get there!