June 11, 2011

Tomorrow is our one year anniversary, so we started out the day pulling the top layer of our wedding cake (raspberry cake with white buttercream frosting and cream cheese with coconut filling) out of the freezer.

This afternoon Jon surprised me with a Whale Watching expedition out of Gloucester, MA. It was pouring rain for much of the time, but I guess the whales don't mind the rain because we ended up seeing seven Humpback Whales, at least three Fin Whales, and dozens of Atlantic White Sided Dolphins! The naturalist on board, a University of Massachusetts Amherst grad, said he hasn't seen this many whales out this season, and that it's a real treat to see the elusive Fin Whales.

At the beginning of the trip, we saw a couple of lighthouses 

Ten Pound Island Lighthouse, Gloucester, MA

Eastern Point Lighthouse, Gloucester, MA

and a couple of castles,

including one we had toured previously, Hammond Castle.

Hammond Castle

For being a crummy weather day, there were quite a lot of people on board, including a Girl Scout troop. They, and the others, all brought lunches and card games on board. This being a surprise, I was not as prepared as they, but fortunately there was a snack bar on board, featured the best Pop Secret popcorn ever (the magic number for cooking popcorn at sea: 2:15 in the microwave!) And having a smaller crowd was probably a good thing because they were less people to have to climb over to get a good picture spot!

After about an hour at sea, we made it to Jeffreys Ledge, which is home to marine life, which means it's also home to whales who need food to make it through the winter.

It wasn't long (2:37 p.m.) before our naturalist could see a Humpback Whale he recognized as Hornbill, below the surface. Unfortunately, I was too slow on the draw to show you anything.

At 2:40, we saw another waterspout, a sign Hornbill was coming back up again.

And then, a few seconds later, I got him!

Hornbill didn't stay below the surface for long, so I was able to improve upon my zooming in capabilities (thanks for the long lens, Dad).

The green water indicates we are looking at Hornbill's side:

The underside of Hornbill's tail is what the naturalist used to identify him. Here's another look at it during his dive at 2:51 p.m.

After our captain sped off to another part of Jeffreys Ledge, we saw even more Humpback Whales. And, since I had a good assortment of stills, I thought I'd try out the video capabilities on my camera (thanks, Dad!)

 

 

Here's another Humpback Whale:

And is this the same whale again?

Our naturalist said we were going to turn around, but then he got a report about Atlantic White Sided Dolphins.

The dolphins were accompanied by Fin Whales. Our naturalist said although there are a lot of these guys in this area, they are pretty elusive. When you can see them, you can see how big they are (up to 75 feet long!)

By this time it was pouring rain, but we still had a good time!

-- POSTED BY COLLEEN