Tales of Whale Tails

Today was the highlight of our "New England Fall Colors and Whale Watching Tour". The tour has provided some wonderful sights and experiences including a city tour of Boston, a cruise on Lake Champlain in Vermont, and some beautiful fall foliage scenery through Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. We've had a mixed bag of weather to deal with including wind, rain, and fog, temperatures ranging from the 50's to the 70's.

But today all the best forces of nature converged on Cape Cod when the weather and the whales put on a spectacular show for us! We cruised from Barnstable Harbor on the "Hyannis Whale Watcher" in bright sunshine under perfect blue skies to about 35 miles out into the ocean to "Stellwagen Bank", a Marine Sanctuary which is evidently the ultimate "Food Court" for whales before they head to their winter in the Caribbean. What a life!!

We began the ride with some skepticism, doubting that we would actually see whales and expecting the day to be not much more than a pleasant day on the water. Boy, were we wrong! We saw whales, whales, and more whales. They surfaced and dove and waved their fins at us. They flapped their tails for us. The ship's crew was wonderful at helping us to spot the clues and where to look to see the always brief sightings, whales don't pose for you, you have to be looking in the right place at the right time, and to take a picture of them is even more of a challenge. But see them, we did. And we even got some pictures.

At some points during our whale-sitings it actually felt like the creatures were playing with us as they would dive on one side of the boat and come up on the other. It seemed like they must have enjoyed the silly sight of a hundred people running from one side of the boat to the other just to try to capture their antics! I truly wondered who was watching whom.

Well it really doesn't matter and I hope the whales had as memorable an experience as the people did!