Taking a cruise

It was a hot day on the docks today! We had to hose the parking lot down to cut down on the dust. But the people heading on the Whale Boat were a happy lot so here is a quick video showing the people heading out to track down the Whales of July!

Bermuda Whale Website

Someone on our crew worked at this place in Bermuda last year. It is a very interesting website check it out.

We are just a few months before we start up again.

http://www.whalesbermuda.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=256&Itemid=107

Blue Fin Tuna

One of the things that people remark to us on the Whale Boat is that the size of Blue Fin Tuna when we point out the schools of tuna during our trips out to see the whales. They have a hard time understanding the size, they are to use to seeing the little cans of tuna on the grocery store shelf.

So to show people how big blue fin tuna can get, here is a picture of one with a local charter fishermen who caught one last year. The Captain's name is Tom Mansfield, and he was the pilot for the Lobster Boat one season a few years back. So some of you will recognize him.

A bit of summer in the winter

I was going thru the images that I have collected over the years and I found this one of the yacht "Adiz" that was moored off the Breakers one summer after a small rain shower. I love the rainbow in the back ground.

The "Adiz" was on the final leg of a world tour from what I understood at the time of this picture.

Final Fling of Season?

It looks like that Mother Nature is going to give us a hard time in getting out to see the whales for one last time before Columbus Day. The sea conditions look like it is going to be a bit on the windy side. But we are going to cross our fingers and hope for the best.

Funny reply of the week. Someone asked us if we gave senior discounts on whale tickets. And one of our quick witted associates said that we don't believe in age discrimination thus we didn't have a senior discount.

It has been very busy in the Kennebunk area we are still getting a lot of cruise ship buses out of Portland, Maine. Yesterday it was the Queen Victoria out of South Hampton, England on a 24 day tour.

Pirate Day?

I just found out that it is International Talk like a Pirate Day on September 19th! Who would have guessed.

Check out this website it is pretty funny. http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html

The whale boat is winding down, we are just doing weekends, hopefully until Mid -October. We just need some hearty souls to venture out with us. The leaf peepers don't want to leave their buses.

The scenic boat is doing well we had two groups go out and that was 88 people on board. The weather was nice and everyone had a good time.

Labor Day Weekend

It seems that just a few days ago it was Memorial Day and we were just starting up the Whale Watching season. Now we have just finished the Labor Day Weekend and while we are still going out to see the whales we have cut back the trips to the weekends only. We will still be busy doing the fall charters, as well as the regular trips so, both September and October will be fairly busy for us.

I have gotten a few pictures that were e-mailed to us from some of our patrons that were on the Whale Boat in August and I thought I would share them with everyone! I do have permission to do so.

This breaching Humpback Whale was photographed by Katie aged 12 from New Jersey on August 8, 2009! I believe Katie got the shot that all of us look for on a Whale cruise!

This next one was taken by Peter Figlia, the picture was sent to us by Sandy King, she was very proud of the pictures that her brother-in-law took that day. It shows a Humpback whale bubble feeding. In fact, on the day it was two whales bubble feeding together, you can see the second whale starting to come thru the surface on the left.

If I remember correctly, these two whales breached together later in the cruise!

I am also passing on the following link to see other whale pictures from a passenger on Nick's Chance. She shot so many that she posted them on Shutterfly for all to see. If you want prints just follow the instructions on Shutterfly. Here is the link: http://whales81809.shutterfly.com/

So if you want to go out and see the whales this fall give us a call at 207.967.5507. We are located in Kennebunk, Maine lower village next to the Kennebunk River.

Video of a Humpback bubble feeding.

The mates were going thru the camera on the boat and found that we had some video of a bubble feeding humpback whale. So we are going to post it so you can see what we have been seeing on the boat this summer.

We also had an interesting question posed this week by a whale watcher. The question was if you followed the latitude (N 43"20'45.22) on leaving the Kennebunk River where would you end up on the other side of the Atlantic. The answer is, La Coruna, in Northern Spain. We broke out the big marine maps once we got back to port to check it out. The range that people were guess was southern France to Portugal.

And the funny question of the week given to us by Ian, was "Why is the river running in reverse? The answer was that the kennebunk river is a tidal river and the tide was coming back in. We have a 9 to 10 foot tide change every 6 hours from high tide to low tide.

Pictures from a different point of view

Captain Gary piloting the Whale Boat "Nick's Chance"


We have had the good fortune to have a series of pictures shot by a photographer from the Philadelphia area and his name is Julian Kornacki. He is a destinations wedding and portrait photographer. You can check out his website at http://www.juliankfoto.com/

We are showing a series of pictures that he took on a recent trip within the past 2 days.

Mr. Kornacki used a fisheye lense to take these pictures, kind of fitting since we were on the ocean looking for whales. He was trying to get a series of photos showing the life on the boat while enroute to the whale feeding grounds.

Waves crashing by the port side.

People relaxing in the sun while enroute.

The stern of the boat in the following shots. We are moving at about 14 knots.

People sitting on the bow looking for the great white whale.

Enjoying the day

Back at the dock! You can see the people unloading on the port side towards the rear of

"Nick's Chance."

I would like to thank Mr Julian Kornacki in sharing his pictures. Don't forget to check out his website at http://www.juliankfoto.com/.

If you have been on Nick's Chance or Kylie's Chance and have pictures to share please email them to us at firstchancewhalewatch@gmail.com. We will post them on the blogspot.

Thanks Julian!

He has promised to send us more in the coming days.

Hurricane Bill vs "Flipper"

Well the seas have been rough and all the boats have been tied up to the docks since Saturday, due to Hurricane Bill. We spent a few of those days doing general maintence on the Whale Boat and now that is done.

So, since a few of us has a few days off now, let's watch the orginal television show "Flipper" on Hulu.com. Just to stay in the mood of aquatic world.

The weather has been nice

The weather has been nice and we have been going out as much as possible. The temperature is going to be in the 70's for the next few days so hopefully the whales will be out there to greet you. The video is of a humpback looking for food and making a dive to capture what he has seen. Come and take a cruise and see what is happening in the water you never know what you will see.

Also the Pilot House Restaurant recently sponsored the Intercruise guides. Intercruise is a large company that gives land tours to people on cruise ships. Kennebunk will be visited by a large group of cruise ship tourist in the comming weeks. So it will be busy at the ticket booth for September.

Speaking of the Pilot House Restaurant every Saturday there is a live band under the tent from 4pm to 8pm. Check it out when you are in the area.

Close Encounter

Nice footage of a close encounter with one of the Humpback whales. Video taped by Nicole, our resident Marine biologist on Nick's Chance.

Is it whale season?

The weather kept the boats tied to the dock today. It was very foggy and the rain was off and on during the morning preparations. So the Captain decide to call the trip off.

The title for this blog is one of the questions that we get from time to time. And here are a few other ones that have stuck out in our years of being on the water.

Is it whale season? Yes, there are always whales out there but the Humpbacks do migrate to the the Caribbean in the winter the finbacks, sei, minke and blue whales just go further out into the Atlantic.

Is there a weight limit on getting on the boat? This was a phone call and we said no. But were afraid to ask why was the question was even asked.

Can you see whales in the rain? The answer is yes. The whales are already wet anyway.

Do we get to swim with the whales? The answer is no! It is against the law to swim with the whales. It is called harassing the marine mammals and it is a federal law. If you want to swim with the whales you have leave the United States and go to the Bahamas in fact whales like to get close to pregnant women that are diving. Or that is the rumour.

How far is the horizon? The horizon is about 16 to 20 miles on a clear day. One lady asked me how far the horzon was after you travel 10 miles and I told her it was the same, 16 to 20 miles. She looked at me very confused, I don't think she ever understood the concept.

How high are we above sea level? I tell people (politely) to look over the boat's freeboard and judge for themselves. (Approximately 6 to 7 feet)

Is that the Whale Boat? As they point to a 85 foot boat that has Whale Watching in big letter printed on the second level on both sides. The answer is yes it is. And once the follow up question was do we leave the dock? I was almost tempted to say "No, we just watch video's of whales." But, I didn't.

Where did the water go? In Kennebunk, Maine we have 10 to 12 foot tidal changes every 6 hours. So as we load the boat at low tide I tell people that ramp will not be as steep on the return in case they are worried. Thought, I sometimes tell people that we forgot to pay the water bill.

Can you make the boat stop moving! This person had no concept of waves/swells or the ocean. And his girlfriend was very embarrassed that he asked the question. He was serious and wanted us to turn around as soon as we cleared the river into the ocean. I told it was to late and to get comfortable.

These are a few of the strange questions that are asked. If someone asks us a new one in the future we will you know.

Does the video camera work?

Well we got a small cheap video camera that fits into a small pocket. Since the salt water of the ocean can ruin an expensive camera with one wave over the bow we decide to give this a try. I think we will have to improve our filming & editing skills but it has great potential. The capture gives it an old 8mm look from my grandfather's days.

The subject's were Tim who is the mate and Captain John on "Kylie's Chance".

It will be interesting to see what the crew will video in the future, maybe they will get something that will go viral (video) so the whole world will watch.

Got Whales?

Well, the week has been flying by. The Humpbacks are in the area and the weather has been fairly calm. So once again we have been going out as much as possible. One of the mates missed the breaching humpbacks, it was her day off. That happens to a few of us... missing the breaching whales. It got to be a joke with a few of us about missing all the great action. We have been thinking of having a sticker make that says "Got Whales" and put it on the back of the boat. Perhaps that would induce the humpbacks to breach more.

Once we had someone ask us what we fed the whales to get them to come to the boat. We told them "herring favored animal crackers". We were kidding, we don't have enought food to fed the whales they can eat a couple of tons of fish daily. But it is interesting to listen to some of the weird questions that we get from time to time. We will share some of the more curious ones as they happen.

It turned out nice in the long run.

Hello Lobsteers!
Well after raining all night and a morning of fog, the weather broke and the Scenic Lobster Tour was able to go out with a large group of people. There was over 60 people enjoying the beautiful Maine coast.
The whale boat didn't have enough people to go out in the afternoon, since the morning trip was cancelled due to weather.
The crew got a small video camera to take on the boats to document what they see and be able to put it on the Blog for you to check out. Soon we will post a short clip of what the Scenic Lobster Tour is like. We are hoping to get video of whales breaching and spy-hopping. So stay tuned for future video updates.

Remember that there is a "Cruising to the Oldies" on Sunday, July 19 at 6pm. Tickets are $25pp and reservations are required the trip will be 3 hours long. Call 207.967.5507 for more info

Fireworks... Mother Nature's version

Well, Happy 4th of July everyone! At the moment (2pm) Mother Nature is providing a thunderstorm as her celebration to the 4th. Hopefully the thunderstorm will work it's way thru and we will have clear skies tonight to see the man-made fireworks on the boat. If you want to go you will need reservations so call.....

Yesterday the fog was on the ocean so we got skunked looking for whales, but we tried. Let get a good sun dance going with a blue sky accessory.....we need it!

None the less, we were back out on the water this morning looking for whales and the sighting were good with a couple of Finbacks and a Sei whales along with a pod of dolphins.......yea!!!!! So come on down and go out with us.

Interesting sighting in Australia

I thought I would past this website on to everyone. It is devoted to a white humpback whale named Migaloo. Which has been in the area of Queensland in Australia. I found it interesting.

The site is at http://www.migaloowhale.org/

It appears that the name Migaloo means "white fella" in the native language of the Australian Aboriginal's.

I wonder if it is raining in Australia? If not, I am going to see Migaloo.

Fog, fog, fog......

Well, all we can say is FOG! This weather is getting depressing. All we saw was FOG and some more FOG yesterday! I better stop my brain is becoming FOGGY. Arrgh!!!!!!

Summer sun tribal ritual will have to happen soon! We will let you know the start time.......

It looks like this Lobster saw some sun .... no, wait, it took a sauna bath notice the red hue.

If you want to eat & drink your rainy days away, visit the Pilot House Restaurant. They have wicked good prices on Lobster Dinners. That is were I will be.

Misty Monday

We had a brave bunch of hardy souls that went out in the rain today to go whale spotting. And the report back was they saw Sei whales , dolphins and a really close look at a Minke whale. So close that you could see the white "mittens". The crew like to call the Minkes whales, stinky minkes because it is hard to get a close look at them because they can be very boat shy. A Minke whale is about 35 feet long and likes to eat small fish like herring, capelin and krill.

When are you going to come out and look for the great white whale with us?

Stop by and see us the next time you are in Kennebunk, Maine.