Trip 4 Day 3 (July 31) - Stellwagon Bank, MA to Provincetown, MA

July 31st: Stellwagon Bank, MA to Provincetown, MA
Written by Lisa and Crew:

Morning
In the morning we headed out for Provincetown. Breakfast was pancakes, bananas, and blueberries, which were really good. For the rest of the morning we rotated watches and finished our flags. We did see some whales surfacing for air every once in a while. Around 10ish we were able to see some whales breaching (jumping high out of the water) only about 40 ft from the boat!!! Everyone literally dropped what they were doing and went on the deck to watch. There were several breaches and they were awesome!

Afternoon
Once we reached Provincetown, we walked to a local marine life entanglement center, which works with animals such as whales that get caught in things such as netting and lobster traps. For the next one and a half hours we got to walk around Provincetown and look at all of the shops and things. At about 3:30, we all met back up at the boat to pack lunches in preparation for our whale watching adventure. The ship that we boarded for the whale watch was called the Portugese Princess. It was an official whale watching boat and had two decks. We saw 12 humpback whales! The experience was amazing! Most of the whales were just surfacing for air so we were only able to see a small portion of the back and the dorsal fin. However, one of the humpbacks breached pretty high only about 150-200 feet from the boat! Most of us stayed on the outside of the boat for a better view. Every once in a while a whale would get close enough so that we could actually feel the warmth of its breath! On the way back to the dock, all of us stood on the bow and enjoyed the wind while we got soaked with rain.

After returning we used indoor plumbing (a big deal) one last time and went back to the boat. The rest of the evening was spent finishing nightly duties and getting ready for bed. Overall the day was great! No one got sick and we had lots and lots of fun!