Our plan was to sail directly from Provincetown to Penobscot Bay, but we decided to move up the coast with day trips with the threat of storms, particularly thunderstorms on a daily basis. We hoped to have some whale sightings as we crossed Cape Cod Bay going from Provincetown to Cape Ann. It wasn't long before we had our first sighting, and our good fortune continued throughout the day. Later in the day we came upon a pod that seemed to be spending a lot of time near the surface. We stopped and drifted to take pictures. It is unlawful to approach within 500 yards of whales so we stayed well off and tried to get pictures with a telephoto lens. This was proving difficult as our drifting boat bopped on the waves. We suddenly realized that the whales had changed direction and were heading directly at us approaching the port side and swimming on or near the surface. A bit or a lot of panic set in but we decided it best to let them avoid us and so we continued to drift. They approached quickly and at the very last second slid under Ariel resurfacing just on the other side. We were breathing a sigh of relief when we heard a loud noise behind us. We hadn't noticed but one had paused just off our stern, no more than six feet away and the noise was a rush of air from the blow hole. They continued on their way as did we. It was a wonderful and unexpected experience. Unfortunately we did not get any close in pictures as we had a telephoto lens on the camera. These were Humpback whales.
The humpback whale is a baleen whale and a rorqual whale that sings amazing songs. It performs complex and cooperative feeding techniques. The humpback has a bulky head with bumpy protuberances (tubercles), each with a bristle. Humpbacks are the acrobats of the ocean, breaching and slapping the water. They live in pods and have 2 blowholes. The name humpback describes the motion it makes as it arches its back out of the water in preparation for a dive.
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