A "whale" of a time!!

Last Monday, Gin, Syl, Pam, Nancy and I headed out on the Atlanticat for a whale and puffin tour with Bar Harbor Whale Watching Tours.  We were celebrating Gin's birthday a bit early!!

Nancy had asked one of the crew (who looked familiar to her, Syl, and I - more on this later) the best place to sit...he said that most people like the view from up top. We found what we thought would be the perfect place for the five of us.....but others soon found our little corner of the boat.

Nancy and her new friends!!

It was a perfect day to be on the water and, as we pulled out of the harbor, we saw some beautiful sights...

Beautiful building as we depart Bar Harbor

I love the boats and lobster buoys!

And we also saw a few lighthouses....

Egg Rock Lighthouse

Lighthouse at Petit Manan Wildlife Refuge

This is where we were supposed to see the puffins.  They were waaaaaaay off in the distarnce and almost impossible to capture with the camera. They are a lot smaller than I thought.

Those specks are puffins!

We then went further out looking for whales.  We all really wanted to see them and were anxiously awaiting a sighting....

Syl and Gin waiting on the whales

I thought that we would see one, maybe two whales.  Boy was I wrong.

First sighting

Two at a time

Breathtaking!

From a distance, I could see this but could not make out what it was until we got closer....

The whale was on it's side slapping it's fin in the water.  It was such a cool sight!  Our guide told us that this was a momma whale with her baby calf.  I think that the picture below is of the momma and her baby.  Note that there is some damage to the baby....I believe that our guide told us that this was the result of the whales getting in fights.

Baby whale tail!

All of the whales that we saw were humpback whales.  Adults range 39-52 feet and can weight up to 79,000 lbs.  That's a lot of whale!  We figured that we saw about 15 whales.  

  

As we headed back to Bar Harbor, it was quite chilly.  The wind was whipping and we were all glad that we had brought sweatshirts and something to cover our ears. 

Remember earlier that Syl, Nancy and I thought we recognized one of the crew?

 

Ranger "G"

We knew him!  When we were in the Everglades in February, Ranger "G" led us on our canoe paddle on Nine Mile Pond and had also given one of the night programs that we had attended. He's now in Bar Harbor for the summer working on some type of research (but not for the National Parks).  Once he saw us, he said that he remembered us.  Too funny - it is such a small world!  

It was a glorious day on the water!!