Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Just like she said







It happened just like LK said it would. It was my fourth day in the Atlantic Maritimes, and frankly, the weather had been crap so far. I had also been keeping crazy hours in order to get to St. John's, Newfoundland, including a grueling eighteen hour ferry ride. When it wasn't raining, it was so foggy I could not see more than 100 yards out to sea.  But I couldn't stand up anyway, it was THAT windy. I made it through the entire pelagic voyage seeing one bird, a lone Leach's Storm-Petrel battling the elements. So I was ready for a change. Talking to LK last night, she wished me luck on my trip and wished for a beautiful day for our boat ride on Witless bay filled with lots of whales and sun.  And guess what, we had a beautiful, sunny day, and saw lots of whales. The boat trip featured the often fantastic Humpbacks, but also an uncharacteristically curious Minke Whale that spent some time checking us out up close. Throw in an iceberg and a bunch of seabirds, and it was a pretty good trip! The crew was so excited about things, they actually kept us out an hour longer because the whales would not stop performing. Back at the dock they said it was one of the top three whale days they'd ever had. Exaggeration I'm sure, but I've seen a fair few whale shows, and this one was the best I had had on Witless Bay. And to top things off, we headed to Cape Spear in the afternoon. Cape Spear is where North America ends and the next bit of dry land is Ireland. With the Capelin running, the whales were coming in close, including three fantastic Fin Whales. These Fins came so close that we could see their white lower jaws (right side only), and the delicate chevrons across their backs behind their blowholes. It was really awesome. Other than being overheated and bit sunburned, it was the perfect day. I need to talk to LK more often.

1 comment:

LindaCO said...

What is the white patch in picture 3, is that the jaw of the fin whale? I am so going to be ticking off the whales in a couple of weeks!!