Aloha,

There was lots of great activity to see this past weekend. On Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales, guests were delighted to watch a Mom/Baby pair. Baby was busily breaching repetitively, while Mom stayed just below. We also saw some great tail lobs and pec slaps from a couple of nearby adults. On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we got to see a VERY competitive pod chasing across the ocean. We saw lots of chin slaps and quick changes of direction and got quite the surprise when they all surfaced next to us, surrounding us. They spent almost 10 minutes using our boat, and all of us humans got quite the workout trying to follow them as they surfaced on opposite sides of the boat over and over again. On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we loved watching a Humpback tail lob 30+ times right in front of the boat. On Saturday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise, Captain Baker reports watching 2 competitive pods, but the highlight of that cruise was the Mom/Baby/Escort pod that chose to stay with us for 45 minutes. On Sunday’s 10:00 Cruise, two whales spent considerable time right next to our boat. On our 12:30 Cruise we got to watch baby whale breach 36 times (we counted) right in front of the boat. Mom cruised right alongside her calf. On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise we paralleled a very active competitive pod as they headed south. We saw lots of whale aggression – head lunges, chin slaps, and lots of shoving around.

Mahalo,

Claire

Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales have massive tongues. An 80,000 pound Humpback has a two-ton tongue!  Taste buds appear to be atrophied…and they are unable to protrude their tongues from their mouths.