Today we have booked onto a Whale watching trip which ‘guarantees’ you will see whales or your money back, so excited but with fingers crossed we got up and looked out the window only to see a wall of fog so thick that we couldn’t actually see the houses on the opposite side of the road. All the same for the last few days the fog has burnt off in a couple of hours so we hoped for the best. It was about an hours drive to the boat which was quite slow going in the fog but we found the dock and the car parking quite easily so checked in and waited to board. The boat we were on was called The Whale Watcher and they did say that despite the fog they had seen whales yesterday so we found a seat up on the top deck and settled in for the hour ride out to the edge of the cape. On the way out, we could just make out a small settlement on the bank which was actually built in the 1800’s and is now in an area that is protected so no further building or improvements can be made, this means that they don’t have electricity unless they can find a way to generate it themselves. As the guide said this seems romantic but in winter, or even on hot humid days it isn’t much fun. Unfortunately the fog didn’t lift but we did see whales, although the first thing we learnt was that hump backed whales don’t actually travel in pods which I thought they did, they are solitary and only come together for breeding which they do in the Caribbean they come to New England in the summer to feed and go back south to breed and give birth. The other thing is that they are pregnant for one year which again I hadn’t realised, they actually travel back up north while pregnant to feed then go back down south to give birth. We stopped where they had seen whales yesterday and after a few minutes we actually saw a blow hole. Another thing I didn’t know was that they only flip their tails when they are going for a deep dive to provide themselves with more momentum to dive down. There were two other ships looking for the whales but we all got a good view, they drift on the surface when they are resting and expel air just before they are going to dive again. Apparently they come back to this spot each year as it is on an underwater cliff it drops from about 60 feet to about 200 which is why they find shoals of fish here and why it is a popular place to come and feed. Unfortunately the fog didn’t ever clear but we watched a couple of Hump backed whales playing around and before we knew it we had to head back to shore. We had actually been out with the whales for over 2 hours but the time had flow by so it was then time to come back to dock and head back to the room for a rest before going out for dinner.
