Fogo - Blows and Tails
My next morning I met Tony and Aiden at 6:30am - the amazing fishing boat duo! I had such amazing experiences with them last year I could not wait to spend time with them on the water again. I arrived on the boat with ALL of my camera equipment… and lots of warm clothes. It was raining and cloudy - I did not care one bit - I put on my survival jacket and off we went! As we pulled out of the harbor the 3 of us gathered in the Captain’s area of the boat catching up with one another - they feel like brothers to me. Aidan said that if the forecast was right we might see the sun at around 9am. It felt like we were hardly out of the harbor when Tony said - port side - spout! I thought - are you kidding me? I squinted through the rain to try and see what he had seen - I kept looking… and then… a spout! Wow! Aidan said - it’s nice when the whales cooperate - that is the direction we are heading! :). We kept motoring along… another spout!…. We kept on. We started to see Puffins flying up ahead - swarms of them! We kept getting closer to the islands that make up Little Fogo. Puffins were absolutely everywhere! It was still raining but it was time for me to get out on the bow of the boat with my camera. They put an extra jacket on the bench seat so that I wouldn’t get totally soaked sitting down. I worked on my settings - it was a challenge - moving boat, moving water, clouds and rain. Where to look? In the sky for puffins or along the water for whales?? By this point we were getting even closer to the group of islands - there are 80-100 islands out there - it is breathtaking. Tony took us out a different way than last year - another spectacular voyage. And then… puffins and whales! I did the best that I could - I kept wiping down my camera. Thankfully Brian had told me that my cameras can take as much rain as I can. When it is too much for me it is too much for my cameras. I wiped down my lens and my camera and kept scanning the horizon, the islands, and the sky - it was quite a work out right from the start.
Last year I was on Fogo at the end of June - too early for the arrival of the Humpback whales. This year I planned my trip around when I might have the opportunity to see Puffins and the Humpbacks. I have wanted to see whales for many, many years. I have seen them from a great distance and once I did in fact seen one about as close as you can be, when a Northern Right Whale was moving along parallel to the beach out at Herring Cove at high tide. It was a frigid day in February in Provincetown - I will never forget that experience.
I have fantasized about being out on a fishing boat and seeing whales from that perspective. To be out in the North Atlantic trying to spot these enormous creatures is a challenge - they can be absolutely anywhere. I had hoped to see some blows (spouts) and some fins and tails. Humpbacks grow to 40-60 feet in length and weigh up to 30 - 40 tons. They come to the waters off of Fogo for the Capelin fish.
It is time to come along with me -
I absolutely could not believe I was seeing this whale tail up ahead!
All of those white dots are puffins, too! Everywhere you looked - puffins!
I have no idea how much time had passed but it seemed like all of a sudden we had two whales to our left and two on our right! More than a dream - it was truly out of this world! We could see spouts, watch their enormous bodies roll and see a little bit of their tails before they would submerge to deeper waters. Tony throttled it back - the seas calmed right down. Aidan came out to the bow with me and told me to look behind us - a tiny patch of blue sky was behind us - it was clearing…
We kept looking and then there was so much whale action I didn’t know which way to look! I told myself - settle down and follow one until you can’t and then spot another and do the same thing… and it worked. Tony did an incredible job keeping the boat as still as is possible as the water is of course not still. It is very challenging to look through the viewfinder and try to spot the whale while the boat is bobbing up and down - but I absolutely loved the challenge of it all. Again I don’t know how much time had passed but I do know my arms were getting very tired - but who cares about that when you are on the open sea seeing whales!
Are you kidding me???
Again - are you kidding me????? :)
And not to be overlooked - this gorgeous Atlantic Puffin came to see what all of the excitement was all about!
I was shooting in every direction - angled to the light, directly into the sun, any direction that had a whale body part.
I heard the most incredible sound - omg the whales were making sounds on the left and right of us! They were roaring and blowing! And just then the sky really began to clear…. I was so hoping the whales would continue rolling, blowing, and maybe show us a tail or two -and did they ever… I can’t adequately express how exciting the following was for me - I will never forget it.
In my mind, I have played over and over again what I would have to do in order to have everything line up to capture a tail coming up out of the water. And of course a lot of luck would be involved! I have wanted the opportunity to capture that singular moment when the tail comes up out of the water, seemingly from nowhere, with spray going everywhere while the boat is moving, the water is churning and the light is changing. This is the shot that made a dream of mine - reality…
heading back down…
As soon as I took the last shot above I am not embarrassed to share with you that I completely broke down. I felt this experience in every cell of my being. It just filled me up and spilled over into tears that were the entire range of emotions that it is possible to feel. As soon as I pulled myself together we continued on…..
The next post will be more from this unforgettable morning…