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.

It's a wonderful whale world

These past days have been unbelievable. The whale sightings have been off the chart. We have been having breaching whales left and right or port and starboard off "Nick's Chance". The bubble feeding has been amazing. At one time we just stopped the boat and were surrounded by 12 to 20 Humpback whales. Also the Fin back whales have been very active, one group had a posse of white sided dolphins following them. I do have pictures and video of a lot of this so be patience and we get them up on the site as soon as possible. Nicole has her work cut out for her in trying to identified all these whales.

So come on out and join us. We have been filling up the boats so reservations are important.

We are at 4 Western Ave, Lower Kennebunk, Maine, 04043
Call us at 207.967.5507

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

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

Finally the sun is out...

Well it has been over a week of rain! Hopefully is seas will calm down and we will be able to get back out on the ocean again. Cross your fingers and hope for good weather ahead. We have been out passing out whale watch brochures in York County during all this rain. I think we have hit most of the lodgings and campgrounds but if you can think of one that hasn't been covered let us know.

This image was taken last year as we returned from a trip, in which we passed thru a small rain shower. You can see the wonderful rainbow as the sun was setting in the west.

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.