Captain John and the Whales

Posted on August 11, 2017August 11, 2017 by Dusty Roads

Captain John’s Whale Watching

Captain John Boats lives in Plymouth, MA and sails the seas of Massachusetts Bay and Stellwagen Banks. Why, Matey? What does the Captain John do on the bay? We be lookin’ for whales. Mostly humpback whales but also finbacks and minkes. So come on board and let me tell you a “tail” of the sea.

Whale Watching in Massachusetts

Summertime on the Massachusetts coast means whales. The evening news happily reports when the first whales of the season begin to arrive along Cape Cod. The first are usually the rare right whales. We watch them from the shore. We recognize them by their distinctive wide V-shaped blow. All the while we watch we also freeze in the early spring blustery cold.

With Warmer Weather come the Tours

As the weather warms the Right whales move out and the Humpbacks, Finbacks and Minkes take their place. I’ve followed the whales for 43 years through good years and bad. South of Boston there are 3 main tour companies, Boston’s New England Aquarium, Captain John Boats in Plymouth and the Dolphin Fleet out of Provincetown. It doesn’t seem to matter which one you take, they all seem to end up at Stellwagen Bank within sight of each other and the Pilgrim Tower in Provincetown.

A Whale of a Trip

Last Saturday I finally had a free afternoon. I usually prefer the morning trip out of Plymouth with Captain John. I seem to have better luck on those tours but this time I couldn’t get away until the 2 pm tour. We no sooner reached the feeding grounds of Stellwagen Banks than 3 humpbacks sounded right next to the boat. They stayed close for 3-4 dives before moving out. We had several other humpbacks cruise along with the boat and then one tried to ride our bow! It was a very active trip and the passengers were really excited.

Rate the Trip

If this was your first trip it was a definite 10. There were lots of whales and lots of activity. For a more experienced whale watcher it might have been a bit of a let down. There were no flipper slaps, bubble net or surface feeding, or breaches but some lovely flukes…a 5. I am so spoiled!

Gurnet Light

Photo of the week ~ 25

Posted on June 25, 2014June 25, 2014 by Dusty Roads

This week’s Photo of the week had a real nautical theme. That crazy Humpback , Hancock had 3 photos in the running and his antics carried the day. Weighing in with a total of 25 points Tail Waving is the photo of the day.

Tail Waving

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See you there!

There Be Whales

Posted on June 21, 2014June 21, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Last Sunday was father’s day and it was a perfect day, sunny and warm. It was a perfect day for a whale watch. It would be the first of the year for me. The Captain John website was bragging about amazing sightings from whale calves breaching to pods of whales bubble net feeding. I had to get in on the act.

All of the whale watches seem to go to the same place. The difference is how long it takes to get there. They will tell you you’re going to Stellwagen bank, a marine sanctuary. Located between Cape Ann and Cape Cod, in the southwest corner of the Gulf of Maine, is Massachusetts Bay. The bay’s most prominent submerged feature is the kidney-shaped plateau called Stellwagen Bank, which lies at the bay’s eastern edge. But in the last 3 whale watches I’ve been on we’ve never made it to Stellwagen Bank. We’ve been just outside the marine sanctuary near the tip of cape cod. Race Point at the tip of the cape has been a recurring landmark on these trips.

The last 2 trips I went on had last year had minimal activity, mainly finback whales. They are interesting but they aren’t the showmen the humpbacks are.

So I had my fingers crossed that we’d see humpbacks this trip.

The trip started off with a minke whale just cruisin’ on past us. Then we got a look at a finback whale named Blue.

She had tangled with a Provincetown Fast Ferry and the scars from that encounter gave her a distinctive look so she could be identified.

Finally we saw a tail off in the distance. The Captain took off after the diving humpback. Once near where it had disappeared we throttled back and drifted and waited. Everyone watched the water.

Finally there was the blow. The humpback did a series of shallow dives and then there it came, the arched back that precedes the beautiful fluke.

Humpbacks are identified by the markings on the tail flukes and this whale was showing off that gorgeous tail. Pretty soon the naturalist announced that the whale was named Hancock.

We spent the rest of our trip following Hancock around and put on a show he did. There were many deep dives with the traditional tail flukes which never fails to please. Each time he did that the crowd on board exploded into applause and cheers.