Flukes (courtesy of Helen C. Turner)
Aloha,
We operated a whole bunch of cruises during the last weekend of 2018, so I’m just going to mention some of the highlights.
- We saw lots of spouts and flukes on Friday’s Mid-Morning Whale Watch Cruise from different whales. We also got a couple of good looks at a sounding Humpback who had very distinctive all white flukes.
- On Friday’s Private Whale Watch Cruise, we got to see 5 breaches within 50 feet of the boat. But that wasn’t all…we also got to see peduncle throws, pec slaps, tail lobs and a lot of competition between whales in a 15 minute long mini heat-run.
- It took us a long time to find whales on Friday’s Whales & Cocktails at Sunset Cruise, but when we finally did, it was worth the wait. We got to see two whales surface quite close by to our idling boat multiple times. One time we were surprised when one of the pair surfaced just 3 minutes after sounding — and later they both surfaced and one did a huge peduncle throw just 50 yards from us (though we’re pretty sure it was directed at the other whale – not at us).
- Guests on Saturday’s Wake up with the Whales Cruise got multiple views of two Humpbacks who were on the move. These two whales surfaced, spouted and sounded every 10 minutes or so. We also heard some pretty loud singing when we deployed the hydrophone.
- The best sightings during Saturday’s Snorkel and Whale Watch Adventure Cruise happened before we got to the snorkel site when two whales surfaced and spouted six times before sounding just about 30 yards from us. We saw them again about 10 minutes later much further to our south. And yes, we did see spouts from other Humpbacks, but once you’ve seen whales 30 yards away, those further-away whales just aren’t quite as exciting.
- The whale were everywhere during Sunday’s Wake up with the Whales Cruise. We saw tons of tail lobs, had a couple of close encounters when curious whales approached us, and even saw a couple of breaches.
- Finally, at the beginning of Sunday’s Mid-Morning Cruise, we found ourselves surrounded by Humpbacks, all about 150 yards from us. After watching them all surface, spout, and sound (including a pod of two who spouted 6 times before sounding), we took off to see what else we could find….which turned out to be not much. So on the way back to the harbor, we retraced our route, and were totally taken by surprise when one of those first whales we had been watching breached at our 2:00, only about 50 yards from us. Of course we stopped the boat and we were rewarded with a total of 11 breaches and two huge peduncle throws from this pair of whales — and all of that craziness took place just 50 yards off our starboard rail.
Mahalo,
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: Though they look inflexible, a Humpback’s flukes (the wide part of his tail) contains no bones…just cartilage. When the whale is born, the sides of his flukes are curled up so he can slide more easily out of mom’s birth canal.