First there was a bit of spouting in the distance. Some of the others on my whale watching tour pointed toward the horizon ahead of the vessel at the one o'clock position. I squinted and scanned the blue water, then finally saw a spray of mist. Looks like we're really going to see some whales, I thought to myself.
Like any eco tour, with whale watching you never really know for sure if you're going to come across animals. But the time and place was right, mid May off the coast of Cape Cod in the Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary. A perfectly clear day, not too cold.
It wasn't my first whale watching tour. I'd seen belugas, minkes and blue whales in the St. Lawrence River along Quebec's famed whale route and and right whales in the Bay of Fundy. Coming close to such majestic creatures is always a thrill. But although I had seen dozens of whales spouting, rolling and diving, I was really itching to see a tail fluke or two, or maybe a whale breaching.
Someone had mentioned in the line for the Dolphin Fleet tour that humpback whales are often seen breaching in the area, so I had some hope in my heart to witness it. But I was a bit concerned because the double-decker boat was extremely crowded, which was different from my more intimate whale watching tours in Quebec and New Brunswick. I went upstairs hoping I'd get a better view from above.
Soon we had navigated close to our first humpback whale. Yes, there was the characteristic hump the creature makes as it dives, the captain pointed out. When the whale came to the surface again, it stuck out one of its huge white pectoral flippers and wagged it as if waving hello to us. Okay, maybe I've spent too much time at SeaWorld and Discovery Cove in Orlando, but the whale kept that up for quite awhile!
Finally after the captain decided we'd seen enough of the waving behavior, he headed us toward some other whales. I was a little miffed because the folks on the left side of the boat got a lot more time to see the whale than we did on the right side. Of course us right siders had flooded over to the left and craned our necks to see. Still it was better when the whale had been on our side of the boat and we were watching at the railing.
As we approached the next whale, we saw it was jumping out of the water in the distance. I thought: Now that's more like it! Of course as we got closer the whale quit jumping and then disappeared altogether. I was beginning to feel a little cold in the chilly sea breeze and sorry for myself. But then we were off again chasing another spout.
Luckily this new humpback was in a playful mood and began breaching multiple times. And yes, the captain turned the boat so that we on the right side got our fair share of the action. Of course I was nervously scrambling the whole time to try and get a photograph of the whale in mid air. Action photography while standing in a crowd and spiritual appreciation of what you're witnessing do not go hand in hand.
Too soon the captain was speeding away. He wanted to check out some other whales he saw in the distance. Darned! A humpback in the hand ... But he knew what he was doing because we were soon watching the jumping follies of a mother humpback and her charming calf. After I was sure I had caught several good photos of the mother leaping and twirling and falling into the blue, I finally relaxed and just began watching the amazing creatures with a silent mind.
Nothing had prepared me for the wonder of a 50-foot humpback shooting from the water, glistening and dripping, seeming to defy gravity, suspended in a heavy spray ... then falling backward, revealing its mouth grooves, crashing into the water. Oh rise again beautiful creature! And here she comes again ... and then again and again. I watched rapt as the mother breached more more than a dozen times. Oftentimes she seemed to be flying, her pectoral fins like wings. And as the less obsessed members of the tour sat down I was all alone at the rail, just me and my humpbacks communing.
Finally, the captain said we had to be leaving soon because we were due back at the dock. As we were heading back we came across a humpback that was displaying his tail fluke. He waggled the fluke back and forth toward us for about five minutes and then disappeared into the blue. Was the whale waving goodbye? You will never convince me otherwise!
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