One of the oldest professions in New England, whaling, has thankfully been abolished; because now we get to watch in awe the graceful beauty they possess as they feed off Stellwagen Bank.
We went rather late in the season so we weren’t sure how cold it was going to be. But as it turned out, we had a nice sunny day with calm waters; a cozy sweatshirt and we were good to go.
If you’ve been reading our blog, you know we love boats, and tooting around Cape Cod Bay is half the fun of a whale watch. We climbed aboard the Dolphin VIII of the Dolphin fleet in Provincetown. We were nearly the last one to arrive and confirm our reservation, and the line of people waiting to get on the boat made it seem as if we might not even get on, or at the very least it would be so crowded as to be uncomfortable. Not the case. Even though the cruise was sold out, Dolphin limits the number of passengers so everyone gets a good seat and a good view.
The Dolphin Fleet vessels are specifically designed for whale watches. A second level sun deck and first level cabin offer sun and shade, while the galley offers snacks, drinks, beer and wine (and Dramamine for you landlubbers). There is also a naturalist on board who throughout the trip delivers information about the whales of Cape Cod Bay, and alerts when whales are surfacing.
We saw several whales on the trip - some from very far away, and some as close as 25 yards. We didn’t see any breaching this time out, but a lot of tail shots as they arched to dive deep. You never know what you’re gonna get, and some trips are better than others. Dolphin actually offers a free trip to paying customers if they didn’t see a single whale (which, thankfully, is not a common occurrence.) Once reaching Stellwagon Bank, we stayed for about an hour during which there was rarely a few minutes where we didn’t see any whales. Quite a successful cruise!
After pulling back in we enjoyed some oysters and beer overlooking a beautiful sunset over Provincetown Pier. A perfect ending to an afternoon at sea!
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