On Wed, 7 Mar 2007 19:02:11 -0500, "Roger Long"
wrote:

I'm thinking a fun thing to do this summer might be to take the boat out to
Stellwagen Bank or other whale spots. It would give my crew and guests a
taste of offshore life and be an interesting quest.

Has anybody done this in a sailboat? I'm wondering things like whether
public sighting reports are available, probability of seeing anything, etc.

Being a left coast sailor, I know nothing of the New England whales,
but the ones that frolic in Monterey Bay are quite approachable in a
sailboat. Although your boat might lack the speed to keep up with
them, it is more than offset by the ability to actually hear them when
they blow - an awesome experience! Of course, I'd also like to
believe that the whales prefer nice quiet sailboats rather than noisy
throbbing diesels...

Finding them to begin with can be the hardest part. Their spouts are
easy to spot at a distance when the sea is flat, but then there's no
wind to sail up to them. It's more difficult from the deck of a small
boat in a swell. Sending someone up the mast would probably work, but
who would want to risk it while offshore? The best plan might be to
follow the whale-watching boats, as they are far easier to spot on the
horizon. Once they stop flying along and just seem to be sitting
there, you can be pretty sure they've spotted something.

If you devote a day to this adventure, your guests would certainly get
a taste of offshore life, but you should realize that your quest for
whales might well proof fruitless. Indeed, our closest encounter with
a pair of blue whales was wholly unexpected: Enoying a long upwind
tack, looking aft, I saw them surface less than a quarter mile away.
Then, after 40 seconds or so, they surfaced again, but closer this
time. They were following us! As the minutes went by they got
progressively closer, until one of them surfaced about 50 feet
astearn. It was as big as the boat! It took a breath and dove, and
then, for the next minute everyone was looking everywhere at once.
Where'd it go? Would it hit the boat? Without a noisy motor, did it
even know we were there? And what about the other whale; where was
that one? The frantic searching gradually subsided as the eventless
minutes ticked by. Our two friendly whales had sounded and were gone.

-- John