A Little Bit of Dredging.

Spring is in the air. Have been doing a bit of dredging around the docks. Shot some video of what is happening.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.