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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.