Whale watching day!

This was my first whale watching tour, and Jim's mom hadn't been on one in 20 years. She was in Hawaii this spring and didn't get to see whales, so this was a perfect opportunity. Our hope was to see some humpbacks.





A word of caution to anyone who wants to do a whale watching tour: make sure you know whether or not you'll get seasick before trying one of these tours. You don't want to end up using one of these:

We had the calmest of winds and perfect seas, and there were still a couple dozen people sick as dogs throughout the trip. This meant you couldn't make eye contact with anyone in the cabin, since they looked like death and had Sic Sacs in front of them, and it just makes you queasy. You couldn't make eye contact with anyone in the doorways, since they were usually getting sick there. And you couldn't use the bathroom, because it was full of people getting sick in the toilet, the sink, or anywhere else that looked convenient.





Don't say I didn't warn you.





But I digress.





The tour was cool. They bring along a naturalist who can point out all the birds, seals, and whales we happen to see along the way. During the cold and windy parts, you can hang out inside the cabin and enjoy some refreshments. As soon as we saw our first whale, we came to a stop and hung out for an hour or so watching the entertainment.





The following are pictures of our buddy Flyer. Humpback whales have distinctive tail markings, and that's how they're tracked from year to year. In the cabin, they have a catalog of all the whales so you can get an idea of who's who. Flyer has shown up every year in Maine since the 70s, and he had a lot of fun making us chase him through the sound as he checked out his summer feeding grounds.




Flyer doing one of his surfaces. Humpbacks tend to surface a few times to get air, then do a terminal dive to head down to eat. That's when they show their tails off:





There was a research boat following us on the trip. I'm not clear on their purpose, but I think they track the whale populations from year to year.







The trip back was just as lovely. We got to see a finback, who waved its fin at us.






And we saw the Queen Mary 2, which was in port for the day. In fact, many of the passengers were on our whale watching tour. Why you'd go from a bigger boat to a smaller boat to take the same route to see whales is beyond me, but strokes and folks.





As we came back into port, we saw a lot of lobster boats. Almost makes me want to eat lobster. Almost.