SAILING WITH WHALES

JULY 22, 2016

After our dramatic entry into the Cape Cod Canal our departure was much more to our liking.  We left Onset Bay with the tide, it was a bright sunny morning.  The canal was calm and running at 5 knots out into the bay.  By 9:30 we were sailing across the Cape Cod Bay and into the Massachusetts Bay headed to Boston. 

LONG SLEEVES FOR COOL WEATHER

By 6pm we were turning into Boston Harbor and made our way around into Hull Bay, Massachusetts .  This is a large bay with plenty of room to anchor.  There were many smaller sailboats on mooring balls dotted around the shore, but not one other cruising boat in sight.  We soon found a place to anchor in 15ft of water at low tide.  Before we had time to make dinner more than a dozen small sailboats left their moorings heading out into the bay for a race.  It seems anywhere there are a number of small sailboats, just before sundown its time for a race.  They raced for about an hour and all headed back in the their mooring balls as the sun set.

FAST FERRY INTO BOSTON

LOBSTER TRAP BOUY

The next morning at 6:30am we left Boston Harbor under full sail.  It was going to be a long day to our anchorage in Kittery Point, Maine.  The winds were light and lobster traps filled the dark blue water in large grids everywhere there was water under 100ft.  These traps are much different from the crab traps we have dodged all across the south and up the east coast.  For one thing the markers are much bigger so you can see them from farther off, they are also laid out into what seem to be fields with the rows spaced farther apart.  Making your way thru these areas is much easier than going thru the poorly marked, closely spaced crab traps of the south. 

By afternoon we were in very deep water with few boats in sight.   This part of the New England Coast is home to more than 5 types of migrating whales.  From April to October you may find Humpback, Mink, Finback and the North Atlantic Right Whale.The wind had died down and the water looked like glass. Out of nowhere a very loud and large vessel appeared.  A WHALE WATCHING BOAT out of  New Hampshire came racing across the water.  As it got near you could see people shoulder to shoulder all around the railings.  We watched as they raced past about 1 1/2 miles off our port side and suddenly stopped.  They must have seen something.  We had been on the water all day and not seen a dolphin, flying fish or jumping fish for that matter.  So to see what all the hub bub was about we dropped our sail and turned toward the boat.

Just about the time we were about 1/2 mile off the ship we saw whales.  One blew just off the bow of the boat while another rolled up and back into the water.  Boats are suppose to stay 500 yards away from any whale but this boat was much closer.  Soon after the whale rolled back into the water the boat put it in gear and turned a tight circle racing back the way it had come.   It wasn't long before it again came to a dead stop.  Within minuets another whale surfaced and blew twice in front of the boat.  When it sank beneath the water the boat once again cranked up the powerful engine, made a tight turn racing across the water into the distance.  When the first whales blew we cut the power on It's Perfect and sat back and watched.  This was the first time we had seen a whale tour boat first hand.  From my perspective it looked almost like harassment.  The engines on the boats were so loud and they got so close the whales it seemed they cared little for the whales safety.  

After all the excitement we sailed on and were just a few miles from our turn into Portsmouth.  All was quiet and Rod very calmly said "Linda a whale rolled up about 100 yards off the port side."  Sure enough just as I looked up I saw him going under again as his small dorsal fin sank beneath the water.  We once again stopped the boat and waited.  After a few min we had decided he was not going to surface again.  Getting underway I heard something off the back of the boat.  The whale had gone under the boat and come up behind us and blew, then he once again disappeared below the water.  No pictures of course but we count ourselves fortunate to have been able to see a whale so very close to It's Perfect.

MOORING FIELD OFF

KITTERY POINT

FOLLOWED INTO THE INLET

BY A BULK CARGO CARRIER

By late afternoon we turned into the Portsmouth Harbor and anchored just off a mooring field in Kittery Point, Maine for the night.  It had been a long day.  In the morning we will go back out into the Gulf of Maine.   It is about 45 miles to the inlet into Portland.  We have company coming and plan on spending about 4 weeks in the islands of the Casco Bay.