So here begins my second blog post, and already I'm off by a day, but with good cause. What I'll posting about is on what I did yesterday, which was going Whale Watching to kick off the Spring time in New England, and take some fun photos.

Batteries charged, lenses cleaned, accessories packed and out the door by 9:00 Sunday morning. I haven't been whale watching since I was a child and don't remember it well anyways, so I wasn't sure what to expect. 

Things started off a little rocky when I was lead to believe that the boat had left before I had arrived by someone who shall not be named, and the day appeared to have ended before it began. But as you can imagine they jumped to conclusions, scared me half to death, and the boat was on the other side of the dock. So we boarded the craft and the voyage began.

It was about an hour out to where the whales were grouping so we mostly chatted and attempted to fight off sea sickness, some better than others unfortunately, till we got out there. Then the boat came to what seemed like a gearing halt and immediately following the captain announced the first whale has been spotted starboard of the craft.

Lenses were switched hastily, and I ran to the upper deck to get a look. All I saw for the first few minutes was a vast expanse of nothing but glistening ocean. All seemed calm and empty till a blast of water shot up followed by a large fin. It was a Finback whale, second largest only to the Blue whale, skimming near the top of the water. The shutter was firing, then he submerged once again, and now it was my prerogative to anticipate where this bus sized creature would surface next. 

I then spotted him again feeding just below the surface of the water with his cave sized mouth open. I was able to see his eye, which was about the size of a softball. And was once again in awe of nature and the complexity that we are surrounded by on this planet, as I stared at this tractor-trailer sized behemoth only a couple hundred feet away from me that feeds on some of the smallest food sources out there.


We trolled along for another few hours seeing mostly Finback and Humpback whales, a few up close, more a bit off in the distance. There was a lot of great viewing, unfortunately there were no epic "OMG" moments, such as a full body breach (jump) or anything like that, belittling of my constant attempts at Aquaman-like telekinesis wishing them to do so.

So our time was running out and it was time to head back to port. The ride back was much more enjoyable than going out, mostly because we were going with the wind, rather than against it, as on the way out. We were satisfied with the trip, even though there was nothing uber visually spectacular, but in the scheme of things, considering it was my first trip when most go on dozens to get "that shot", I think it was rather successful.

We made it back to port in Boston and then the question was "Do I call it a day and go home, or take advantage of this beautiful day and  explore Boston in the Spring?" So my friend and I parted ways promptly and I was off around the city, just me and my camera. Since that was it's own adventure by itself, that will probably be my next post, so to give a teaser to that, I'll throw in one photo from a part of that adventure from The Public Gardens.

Until next time,

Sean Gold signing off.