HAVE to take a break from my trip reporting - swimming friend Patricia and I went whalewatching today today on the American Princess out of Riis Landing, and it was SPECTACULAR!
Patricia has already staked out her spot!
They took us to the Ambrose Channel, just off the Rockaway Peninsula, they started us off with a small pod of dolphins (sorry, no pix) and then they found us some lovely whales. Please note the distant city skyline in the 1st picture, and Sebago friends will recognize the Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge (aka Marine Park Bridge) in the 2nd shot. 3rd shot was the splashy tail end of an incredible feeding lunge - we saw a school of bunker suddenly go berserk with the little fish leaping madly from the water and then WHHHOOOOSH up comes this huge head, mouth wide open, water and the luckier little fish pouring out!
We saw a few more lunges although the first was the most spectacular; also a beautiful full breach, all of the whale but the tail out of the water, and then lots of spouting (you can see the mist from the spout drifting away in my last whale photo here) and flukes. I gave up trying to get the spectacular stuff on camera, I could never get the camera up and focused fast enough and I found it was more satisfying to just enjoy the moment without fiddling with electronics. I'll do this again in September when they start running weekend trips, lots of clubmates would've liked to go but right now this was strictly a weekday thing. Worth the vacation day, though!
For more about our local marine mammals, visit Gotham Whale; to make reservations for a whalewatching trip on the American Princess, click here.
And as usual, click on the first picture for a slideshow view. I start with the whales, but have added a few more shots of the human activity out there too, which was also pretty interesting to see.
We saw a few more lunges although the first was the most spectacular; also a beautiful full breach, all of the whale but the tail out of the water, and then lots of spouting (you can see the mist from the spout drifting away in my last whale photo here) and flukes. I gave up trying to get the spectacular stuff on camera, I could never get the camera up and focused fast enough and I found it was more satisfying to just enjoy the moment without fiddling with electronics. I'll do this again in September when they start running weekend trips, lots of clubmates would've liked to go but right now this was strictly a weekday thing. Worth the vacation day, though!
For more about our local marine mammals, visit Gotham Whale; to make reservations for a whalewatching trip on the American Princess, click here.
And as usual, click on the first picture for a slideshow view. I start with the whales, but have added a few more shots of the human activity out there too, which was also pretty interesting to see.
2 comments:
Thank you Bonnie!
Appreciate the support!
Please come out & see us again!
It was amazing! I'll try to get my kayak club out there in September on one of the weekend trips.
I should have mentioned another favorite thing about this trip - we were sharing space in the bow pulpit with a gregarious little boy, who named our whale "Boosiboo", and his mom. Mom told us he's crazy about whales and sharks and when she heard about the tours, she decided to bring him out. The kid was mesmerized and Mom said this was so far beyond anything she'd expected - how cool is it that an NYC mom can do that for her son without leaving town?
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