Whales, Whales, Whales.

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Sun 26 Aug 2012 02:04

41:36.07N 70:55.13W

 

 

Friday & Saturday – 24th & 25th August

 

Friday started with a pretty early start so we could get the anchor up and head into the fuel dock at Journey’s End Marina for 0700hours.

 

This all went well and we left, full of fuel and water at 0730 hours heading south and west for the Cape Cod Canal, some 200 miles away.

 

It was a long hot and almost windless day as we made our way past the western islands of Maine and Portland Harbor. We saw was a huge, glittering slick of fish scales which was probably just a trawler that had hosed down its deck, quite a few porpoises make gliding passes through the waters and a solitary Loon flew past.  The night watches were less straightforward and the biggest problem was around 2200 hours when Sarah’s watch was interrupted by a clattering and banging sound under the hull and around the prop. I was roused from my (needed!) beauty sleep and we had to assume that we had picked up a lobster buoy, which was pretty remarkable given that we were in 150 metres of water. Bursts of forward and reverse eventually seemed to solve most of the problem and hoping that the spurs rope cutter fixed to the prop shaft had done its job, we headed onwards, but at reduced revs.

 

As we went past Boston the radio seemed to get livelier and one memorable call was made to the coastguard there by a fishing boat around midnight, to say that he had heard gunfire on Rose Wharf and there were people screaming. There then followed a few exchanges between the coastguard, the police and the fisherman, but it was clearly all very genuine.

 

Dawn started to break around 0500 hours and by 0600 hours we were passing the grid reference given to us by an OCC boat as the spot where all the whale watching boats begin their searches and within minutes we spotted our first whales of the day. They were a little way off and as ever were hard to photograph, but over the next hour or so as we continued on our way, we saw more and more whales and they seemed increasingly more inquisitive!  We had thought that additional noises still coming from our propeller might have been putting them off, but suddenly there was a huge fin whale surfacing to one side of us, barely 30 metres away. It was a magnificent sight and we stood and watched in awe, but this whale had no sooner made its way astern of us, when another massive beast surfaced barely 15 metres away directly alongside us on the other side. This Fin Whale dived and rose again still alongside and to our astonishment did begin to turn to some concern as they can be larger than Serafina, but it gradually made its way away from us. Finally yet another Fin Whale came heading across our bows, but at some distance out, but the next time it surfaced it was directly in front of us, only feet away and as it completed its surfacing and began to dive again, Serafina sliced over its vanishing tail.  In all we had dozens of sightings and it is safe to say that Sarah was thrilled by it all and this hopefully has satisfied her desperation to see some of these beautiful creatures. Of course she wanted to see Humpbacks and Right Whales as well and the only possible sighting of either of these was fairly distant.

 

A slight miscalculation in tides meant that we had some time to kill at the entrance to the Cape Cod Canal, so we dropped the anchor off the beach and I once again went in to inspect the prop and stern gear. This time there was a problem, but it was loads of brand new floating rope used to secure the lobster pot to the now absent float. The cutter though had done its work and it was not difficult to unwrap the shredded lengths of line from the prop and clear it all ready for use again. Interestingly, about an hour later, the boat used for tagging Great White Sharks showed up and it is a safe bet that I would have been a good deal more reluctant to get this job done here if it had appeared earlier!

 

We motored through the canal and armed with a fresh weather forecast, we had to change our mooring plans for the night. This was not at all easy given the circumstances and we did well to find our way into Clarke’s Cove, New Bedford, nearly an hour after sundown.