Pride of Maui

Posted on February 18, 2017February 18, 2017 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

The Pride of Maui was my afternoon whale watch. I was surprised to find that I was really tired even before we headed out. This fun in the sun can really knock the wind out of your sails!

The morning whale watch had returned around 11 am so I had plenty of time to get a snack. I didn’t want to eat too much because this trip included lunch and a snorkel stop.

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The way I felt as I waited for the Pride of Maui to return from their morning excursion I was seriously doubting I was going to go snorkeling. Still I had my bathing suit on so I figured I could make that decision when the time came.

The “Pride” was another catamaran but much larger than the one we were on for the morning trip. Reef safe sunscreen was being passed around. It was really thick and everyone was coated in white. It reminded me of the zinc oxide ointment the life guards used to put on their noses when I was a kid.

Finally the ship was in, the morning tour unloaded and we began to move up the gangway.

Although this was billed as a whale watch, and we certainly saw whales, it felt as if the emphasis was on the snorkeling part of the trip.

We stopped at a place along the shore that the crew referred to Coral Gardens. It wasn’t that far south of the lookout. I spotted the tunnel on Rt 30. We were given our gear and instructions. There was 1 hour set aside for the snorkel part of the trip. While everyone was in the water the crew fired up grills and began cooking hot dogs, hamburgers and grilled chicken. Quite a feast considering it was all done on the boat.

I did decide to go snorkeling. I thought the cold water might perk me up. I’m glad I did too. I saw a tiny little, yellow pipefish and while I was watching it a brown blob that I thought was a stone started to move. It was a tiny little octopus! It was really fun watching that little guy and I followed him for a good portion of my snorkel time. The parrot fish and yellow butterfly fish that we always saw around were everywhere but that octopus was the high point for me.

Back on board we were just casting off after the nice lunch when we were surrounded by a pod of spinner dolphins. What a great way to wrap up our day.

By the way, this was a 3 hour tour. Remember Gilligan’s Island? They went on a 3 hour tour too but we came back!

A Photo Safari

Posted on February 17, 2017February 17, 2017 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

I couldn’t sleep. The alarm was set for 4 am but I was awake at 3. I tried to go back to sleep but I was too afraid that I’d oversleep if I did that so rise and shine. It’s really dark here with no streetlights!

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I’m heading back to the Pacific Whale Foundation’s location for a “Photo Safari”. I usually stay clear of things like this because my one and only experience of being out with a group of photographers was pretty negative. On that trip I was rudely pushed out of the way, yelled at by one, and blocked by a photography club. Getting a picture was near impossible!

I broke my rule because I figured there would be fewer people on board this boat and they would be actively looking for the best photo ops. Check in was 5:45 am.

I was one of the first to arrive but it didn’t take long for the crowds to form. They had 3 different trips going out so you had to listen carefully to be sure you were in the correct group.

While I was waiting I heard a loud crash that sounded like a lens or camera being dropped. Sure enough. Once of the “look at me, I’m a professional” types had dropped his camera. I offered my condolences but as true to the nature of this type of person, he just brushed it off. Turns out he was a pro and the group leader.

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Once on the boat, a small catamaran, Brian (the pro) began giving instruction about camera settings, depth of field, ISO, shutter speed and aperture modes. He also wanted to know who were shooting RAW and who was still using Jpeg. I was one of the RAW shooters. He tossed out some recommended settings to start out since it was still pretty dark and I was pleased to see that I’d already set very similar settings on my own. Chalk one up for the weak side!

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We spotted a mama whale and baby right out of the harbor. Although they weren’t doing much we spent a lot of time there.

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Moving off we started to see breaching whales in the distance but the captain didn’t head there. Too far out he said. We followed a flotilla of other Whale watching boats.

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We soon found ourselves with another Mama and Calf. Baby must have just learned how to breach as he was jumping for joy.

Baby Breach

That was the only breach we were close enough to photograph. We saw lots more whales , tails and flukes and flippers but no breaching in range. The crew tossed out a hydrophone so we listened to whale songs for about 20 minutes. That was fascinating.

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Everyone was very quiet as we returned to shore. No one got anything special so I think there was a sense of let down. Oh well, these are wild animals. They aren’t going to preform “on demand”.

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The Whales are on a Roll

Posted on August 12, 2016August 12, 2016 by Dusty Roads

I’ve been doing a lot more whale watching this season because the whales seem to be especially active this year. They have been so active that I have skipped some of my other seaside activities to get some extra outings and I have not been disappointed.

A couple of weeks after the Great Puffin Adventure I decided to give the morning whale watch a try. I stayed on the upper deck this time. I wanted to try a different angle.

Sure enough, it was a very active trip. Right off the bat we spotted multiple humpbacks. At first we were getting backs showing as they cruised along and a few flukes.

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I have plenty of photos of backs and flukes so I wasn’t too interested in that.

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A bit deeper into Stellwagon bank we found ourselves surrounded by groups of humpbacks surface feeding.

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That’s always fun to watch. There lots of activity with the birds trying to steal the fish that manage to escape the huge mouths.

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Plus the whales swim along the surface with the water streaming out the sides of their mouths as they strain the water through their baleen.

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That alone would have been a successful trip but suddenly there was a mother and calf off the port side. “Mom” would flipper slap and then the little one one would do the same.

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This went on for quite awhile. In fact all of us with cameras had plenty of time to get pictures.

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Eventually, as if to say goodbye, mom rolled onto her back and gave a double wave, both flippers waving in the air and then both mom and calf disappeared beneath the surface. The show was over.

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We watched some more surface feeding before it was time to head back. I was just packing up the camera when a collective WOW! went up. I looked up in time to see a whale fully breaching. It was quite a distance away. It flew fully out of the water like a giant dolphin! The splash down was huge.

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That was the only full breach I saw but the feisty whale gave us a few other partial breaches. I managed to get the camera back out for the end of the show.

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I’m not too disappointed that I missed getting a shot of the full breach. It was amazing to see and I think I appreciated it more by being able to watch it without the little view finder. A breaching whale, at least in this area, is a rare sight.

I’ll keep looking for another opportunity for that awesome photo shot but if I never get it , I won’t be too sad. I’ll chalk it up to the one that got away.

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.