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!

Fall brings the unusual....

Tomorrow is September 1st and today was the first day that the whale boat was able to get out after the weekend storm. It was filled with the strange and unusual. It was just different on the water today, hard to explain, but it just was!

We saw a juvenile puffin, north Atlantic white sided dolphins, a sea turtle was reported but not verified, minkes and finbacks doing long dives.

One thing for sure we did not see this! But, perhaps next time.

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.

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.

The Ocean is the ocean....

The reason I stated the ocean is the ocean is because of the boat cruise on Saturday. The weather was beautiful on the way out but the winds picked up and the ride back was on the bumpy side. So people got wet and many got sea sick. We have to work with Mother Nature and sometimes the direct way back is not always the best way. So we have to zig-zag like sail boat to reduce the amount of abrupt motion if we tacked straight on.

People, remember, that when you go out on the Ocean to view sea life in the nature habitant, be advised that this is not arm chair viewing , be prepared to expect the unexpected. This is not the Disney Channel. The Ocean is a place that you have to admire it's grandeur, and constantly be in tune with the elements.

We have been seeing a lot of Finback whales, some are being quite active. They are hanging out by the shipping lanes inbound to to Portland, Maine. The weather is suppose to be getting better and staying around for awhile. So please join us.

So while looking at whales you can see some of the big ships heading into Casco Bay to unload their cargo.

The image is of Boon Island which is about 9 nautical miles off of York Harbor. A beacon to remind you to be careful in the area. Since there are at least 35 sunked ships surrounding the area. The last one being a Liberty Ship from World War Two. We pass by this island from time to time to look at the 200 seals living on the small piece land as well as many birds.

As a side note there will be a cruising to the oldies trip on Sunday, July 19th, 2009. There will be a DJ on board, with beer, wine and soda's available. Departure time will be at 6pm. The trip will be 3 hours the cost is $25 dollars per person, cash only. Call if you have any questions 207.967.5507

Who will stop the rain?

We traveled to Jefferies ledge on Friday and Saturday with mixed results since it was a little foggy out there. Sunday got rained out even though the whales are already wet.

On Friday we saw a couple of deep diving Finbacks that were doing long dives. A Finback dive can be 5 to 20 minutes and they are fast swimmers and can resurface a few miles away from where they last dove. They are not the breath holding champs that reward goes to the Sperm whale. More about that in a later blog.

But we did spot a ocean sunfish for the first time this season. An ocean sun fish can grow up to 13 feet across and weight up to 4000 pounds. It feeds mostly on jellyfish and can lay more than 300 million eggs at a time.

The Saturday trip brought gray seals, north atlantic white side dolphins and a puffin. We are seeing more puffins in the area as each year progresses. But the whales were hiding in the fog for the day. To let everyone know, if "Nick's Chance" doesn't spot whales that day everyone on board gets a non-sighting pass to come back anytime for another try. There is no expiration date on the pass. Since whales are a wild creature we can't call ahead and ask them where they are, but we do have a lot of fishing friends that tell us what they have in there area to help us narrow down the field. We don't get skunked very often but it does happen from time to time. We get clients back the next week, the next month or a couple years later. Most of the returning passengers remember us! The crew doesn't change very often for year to year, since we always have a good time together.

The picture is two north atlantic white side dolphins playing in the boat wake! They are fun to watch.

So join us for a trip this summer.

The website is wwww.firstchancewhalewatch.com. Call us at 207.967.5507

Ramping up operations

The summer solistic is this weekend and the crew is ramping up operations at First Chance Whale Watch. We will be heading out on the water, if mother nature will cooperate with us, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 10am. Also the regular weekend schedule is still in effect. Saturdays at 10am and Sunday at noon. So join the whale paparazzi and see if you can see your favorite humpback. And for the kids the scenic lobster tour is a good way to get out on the ocean and let your children see how lobstering is done in Maine with Captain John. It is fun to watch the kids hold a live lobster, a simple joy in life for parents and crew.

A Humpback called Pinball

Hey we had a great day out on the water on Saturday! It was so beautiful out and glass-like surface with a small gentle roll. We found whales on the northern end and back side of Jeffreys. I wasn't able to get a lot of photos as the whales we traveling in search for food. We came across a Minke whale only 6 miles from shore, but it was heading in the wrong direction for us to really take a look at. A passenger made the sighting out on the northern end of Jeffreys and it turned out to be the Humpback whale named Pinball. She is a well-known resident whale first sighted in 1992 and she has been seen for at least 10 years since then. She was traveling in search for feed, as there wasn't a lot on the fish finder, but we did get a few close encounters. There were a lot of other boats around the horizon, tuna boats, and fishing boats. We decided to head towards the south were more blows were sighted. We came across 3 other Humpbacks. Again these whales were hard to get a good look at, as they took were in search for food. I was able to get a fluke photograph of one of the Humpbacks, however it is from a long distance and the quality is not so great. I am not sure about the name of this Humpback right away but am going to try to figure it out. There was also a Finback in the area and another Humpback whale. But we were out of time and had to head back in. It was a great day to be out on the water and were lucky to see such a great number of whales, seabirds, and Sargasso seaweed!

We had a woman on the boat and it was her 4th year out on our boat! We take pride in finding out that some of our passengers come back year after year to experience another great whale watch on our boat. Every trip and every day is different and it is great to hear that passengers enjoy our boat and crew enough to come back year after year. We are hoping to schedule a few more trips this week so feel free to call to find out our schedule!

Mother Nature Rules

Well, this weekend reminded us that Mother Nature always has the upper hand. Nick' Chance didn't go out on Saturday due to weather conditions but we did go out on Sunday at 12:30pm. We had to wait for a half hour because it was dead low tide at Noon and we had to wait a bit to get more water under the boat so we could turn around in the river. Once in the Atlantic the seas were a bit high so the swells were breaking over the bow. At 15 miles out we ran into a pod of FinBack Whales diving for some food at about 300 feet. A basking shark was spotted but it didn't stay on the surface for very long.

The Scenic Lobster Tour was able to make it out both on Saturday and Sunday since it doesn't travel that far off shore. On Sunday we had a tour group from Pennsylvania which was made up of high school seniors on a final class trip/holiday before going onto college later this fall. They had a good time and the crew enjoyed their upbeat spirit. One remarked to the crew that it must be nice to have a job that didn't require you to wear shoes. Since one of the mates prefers the traction of bare feet on the deck while at sea.

What are we doing this week!

So what does the crew during the time between trips? Well, we are out passing out all of our new 2009 Whale Watching and Scenic Lobster Tour brochures. We have cover almost all of the campgrounds, motels, hotels, bed and breakfast inns and a few variety stores in the Kennebunk and Kennebunkport area. Next we will be stopping at the Saco/Biddeford and the Wells/Ogunquit lodgings. If you think of an area that needs one of our pamphlets please let us know!

If you see in passing give us a shout!

The picture is of Red Nun 8 which is the first navigational buoy in the Kennebunk River after going thru the breakers.... remember the adage "Red Right Returning"

Talk to you later!

There she blows.....

Well "Nick Chance" had a great day sighting whales on Sunday May 24, 2009. On the first trip of the season we spotted a group of Humpback whales approximately 24 miles off the coast of Maine. The coorindates were 43'04''.13 by 070'08''.457. The location was Jeffries Ledge in the Gulf of Maine. We had about 7 to 8 whales and one was a calf with their mother a male escort whale. More will be dicussed in later blogs what a male escort whale does.


There was tremendous amount of cheering and clapping from the passengers of the boat when the first humpback lifted their tail in the air as he/she was diving. For the next 45 minutes we had many close encounters of the whales coming up to the boat.

So keep checking in with us on the latest status of whale sightings out of Kennebunk, Maine

The next schedule trip is on Saturday May 30 at 10am.

Hope to see you in the near future.

Ahoy for now!

Gearing up for the Season

Well the 2009 Whale Season season is upon us! "Nick's Chance" heads out into the Gulf of Maine look for the Humpback whales that are in the area filling their stomachs up with old fashion New England Seafood. The first cruise of the season starts tomorrow May 24, 2009!

This blog site will tell you of the whales that we are seeing on our Whale Boat called "Nick's Chance" based out of Kennebunk, Maine. Also we will keep you informed what is happening on the scenic Lobster Cruise Boat "Kylie's Chance".

We will tell you of the fun times and interesting questions that we get during the course of the season.

Hopefully clients that have gone out with us will get on the blog site and leave their comments and stories of what they experienced.

So let's get started.