Whale Watch + Camping, Provincetown, April 13-14, 2012

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norm
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Whale Watch + Camping, Provincetown, April 13-14, 2012

Post by norm »

One of my goals this year is to DO all the paddles that people mentioned or that I heard about last year. One of those trips is to see whales up close off Race Point in Provincetown. So, I talked with all the people I had been paddling with over the winter, came up with a date that worked for everyone and posted the trip. I did a day trip to P-Town last year and it was a very long day, so this time I wanted to make a weekend of it and get some use out of my travel trailer. A few others liked the idea also and planned to tent camp if the weather cooperated. So, the plan was to camp out Friday night and possibly Saturday night if anyone else was interested. Then Briggsy mentioned he had all of Friday off and proposed we do a short trip in Nauset Marsh on Friday, so three of us did that, but that will be in another trip report...

The campground I chose was Coastal Acres Camping Court which is within walking distance of P-Town. Briggsy, Bea and I made our way to the campground after paddling in Nauset Marsh and soon after we arrived, Sue joined us at the campground. Bea was saying she is a minimalist camper, but it didn't take any arm-twisting to get her so sit in the comfy chair outside my trailer as the sun started setting and the temperature started to drop. I told Bea I prefer maximalist camping.

Minimalist camping:

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Maximalist camping:

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I had called the campground and asked about rates and sites, etc,. but failed to ask about parking extra cars. The office is only open limited hours at this time of year, so you just pick out your site and check in the next morning. I failed to ask how many cars could park at each site and then since the place was so empty, we left 4 cars in the office parking lot overnight instead of parking a few on the sites. Well that costs extra...to the tune of $15 per car per day, doubling the cost of each tenter - sorry about that, I should have known better.

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But parking seems to be an expensive proposition all over P-Town. We had scouted a boat ramp and parking lot at the west end of town and found that is cost 25 cents for each 10 minutes! We were thinking of leaving a car there in case anybody wanted to extend the Saturday paddle and circle the tip of the cape into the harbor. We decided to leave my truck in an all day lot that cost only $6 but then during the trip got an even better solution thanks to Ken.

For camp food, Bea brought chips and home-made dip for an appetizer. Sue brought home-made bread and salad for use with the main course which Briggsy supplied - his seafood and pasta extravaganza. I had the easy job of cooking a few Italian sausages on the grill and providing the dinnerware and stove. We were so full after dinner that we didn't have room for the brownies Sue made for desert. It had gotten chilly when the sun went down, so dinner was served indoors. As we sat around letting dinner settle, Ken rolled in to the campground and joined us for the evening. It is odd camping without a campfire, but that is the law on the cape I guess. It was good to be indoors and nobody complained about a heated room to sit in and chat.

Briggsy made us blueberry pancakes for breakfast and I supplied bacon and coffee.

In the last week before the trip, a lot of people expressed interest and the total number of paddlers grew to 14. I think that's the biggest trip I've ever instigated. Almost everyone had arrived early at the put-in and most beat the campers who were the closest. It was great to see all the boats on the vehicles when Briggsy and I rolled in to the Herring Cove Beach parking lot.

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Everybody was standing around watching the whales that were already visible directly offshore...a little too far to get a picture from the beach.

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Quite a few people had not met yet, so there was a lot of mingling and introductions as we got ready. I had not met James and Cindy who would be paddling in a tandem sea kayak.

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Jordan let me try his telephoto lens on my new camera so I got a shot of a lobster boat going by and Race Point Light House over to our right. The weather was so clear you could see all the way across Cape Cod Bay.

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Everyone helped each other getting the boats to the water, we got into our cold water gear and got ready to launch.

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It takes a while for 14 people to all get ready, but nobody complained or rushed each other as everyone was just so happy to be going paddling on such a fantastic day.

Sandy, Bea, Tracey, Ron and Nelson geared up and ready to go.

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Jordan chats with Cindy and James.

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Eileen, Briggsy and Ken are still spotting whales.

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Launching into tiny surf.

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Briggsy couldn't help but take a position where he could keep any eye on everyone. Later he said: "Once a tour guide, always a tour guide". I think he relaxed later once he saw that everyone on this trip were competent paddlers.

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The group headed pretty much straight out where they had seen whales from the beach earlier.

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Nelson looks happy to be paddling.

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Tracey shies away from the camera.

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After heading straight out for about two thirds of a mile, the group turned northwest toward Race Point Lighthouse where the sea floor drops off quickly and the whales come closer to shore.

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I'm sure I didn't get the best shots of the whales and porpoises that began coming nearby. At first it was difficult to identify which was which.

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It was great that the wave action subsided enough that everyone was able to pull out their cameras and get some shots. It is awfully hard to get the shot when you don't know where they'll surface next, but Ron looks like he has this one in his sights.

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So much for calm water...this lobster boat put out a huge wake and sent some big waves in our direction to interrupt our viewing for a couple minutes.

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Ron and the whale watching boat have something surrounded.

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It's a little hard to make out, but I think it was porpoises that made a close pass to a few paddlers.

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We drifted around for quite a while watching action all around us, all trying to get a good snapshot from a rocking boat.

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Cindy had the best deal where she could just sit and aim the camera while James did the paddling.

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You just have to keep your head on a swivel to spot the action.

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Once in a while a bunch would line up in the same direction...

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But most of the time there was confusion as everyone tried to see the action.

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After a while we decided to head over to a beach and land for lunch.

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Archee, a professional photographer, was using much better camera gear than the rest of us. Nelson and Sue try to view some of his shots on his camera's view screen, but it was too bright to see anything very well.

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Archee was gracious enough to gather everyone together and take a group shot of us.

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Many other pictures Archee shot are in an album on his Facebook page which I will provide a link to at the end of this report.

Sue noticed something fall off my boat and took a closer look. Some sort of eely looking fish. Later in the day, we saw thousands of these under our boats. I assume this is one of the things the whales and porpoises where feeding on. Sue scooped up some sand and the fish and tried to return it to the water but said she didn't think it survived.

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Even while standing, eating lunch, there was whale watching going on.

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You could do some bird watching also if that's your thing.

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The group milled around for about 45 minutes on the beach, eating, talking, trying to view the pictures on their cameras.

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Then everyone headed back to Herring Cove Beach.

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Half the group chose to take out and head home.

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After saying our good-byes, the other half continued around the tip of the Cape, circling around into P-Town Harbor.

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It was about 2:00pm and the forecast was for increasing winds, but we got the opposite for a while and it got calmer.

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Bea paddles near shore with Wood End Lighthouse in the background.

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The water turned to glass and we started spotting more big whales. Sue got out her new binoculars for a better look and Archee headed further offshore for a closer look.

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Huge schools of those eely looking fish passed under us and almost totally blocked our view of the bottom. You could identify where they were by the bubbles at the surface.

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After sitting, watching and listening for a while, Briggsy brought up the fact that Ken might be waiting for us at the boat ramp. Ken had offered to hang around town for a few hours and act as our shuttle back to get the cars at Herring Cove Beach. Archee and Sandy were too far out for us to yell out to them, so I paddled out to tell them we were moving on. On the way out, a huge whale surfaced between myself and Archee. That was exciting!

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Archee decided to paddle back to Herring Cove to get more time on the water, so we said our good-byes.

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Six of us continued on to P-Town Harbor.

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Some birds took flight as we got too close.

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Almost around the corner, reaching Long Point Lighthouse.

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Long Point Lighthouse from the harbor side.

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The wind and wave action picked up in the harbor, just when we needed calm to get out the GPS to find the boat ramp and possibly call Ken. Luckily the boat ramp was clearly visible once you got within a half mile and Ken was already there waiting for us.

The Pilgrim Monument.

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Ken laid out a drop cloth in his van and five piled in for a ride back to Herring Cove Beach to get their cars.

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When they got back, Ken took me to my truck on his way out of town. Thanks for making our lives easier Ken!

Eileen had been on many previous whale watches and had info at home about what types of whales and porpoises we had seen. She sent me a message with the following information:

The whales we saw:

fin - these are the second largest of the whales - these are the ones we saw on the second leg of the trip - these were spouting, and at least one came up pretty close to a few in the group

humpback - these were the ones in the distances - these were usually the ones we saw the flukes, the flippers and likely the one that breached on the second leg of trip. That one was too far for me to really tell, but the behavior suggests that it was a humpback.

minke - these were often close - they were really fast in their swim/dive pattern, and have a pronounced curve in the dorsal fin. Based upon dorsal fin shape, we may have also seen pilot whales, but I can't say for sure.

right whales - I did see a couple of their spouts in the distance - they have the most pronounces v spout.. Some of the group may have gotten close to the guys.

We also saw porpoises (small) and dolphins - I know one group was the Atlantic
white-sided dolphin, and a seal.


Here is a topo map of the area with our track highlighted.

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A few specs from the trip:

Launch time: 11:34am
Lunch time: 12:52pm
Back on water: 1:28pm
Half the group takes out: 2:00pm Distance: 5.1 miles
P-Town Harbor Take-out time: 4:10pm
Total Distance Paddled: 11.1 miles


I think these Facebook pages are viewable by anyone:

Here is a link to Archee's Facebook page album that he titled: "Paddling with Whales, Dolphins and Turkeys!!!"
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 382&type=1

And here is a link to Sandy's Facebook album for the day:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 364&type=3

I didn't mean to leave out Bea's Facebook album, but I didn't see it before I finished up the original posting of this report. Here is the link to Bea's Facebook album:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fb ... =1&theater

Link to Cindy and James Facebook album of whale watch pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 099&type=1

A second Facebook album by Archee with all pictures of birds we saw on the beach:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... =1&theater

Thanks everyone for a fantastic day. I don't know how it could have been much better.

Norm
Last edited by norm on Wed Apr 18, 2012 6:51 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Ron
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Re: Whale Watch + Camping, Provincetown, April 13-14, 2012

Post by Ron »

Another great report. Thanks for pulling it together.
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Finn McCool
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Re: Whale Watch + Camping, Provincetown, April 13-14, 2012

Post by Finn McCool »

...And while all this was transpiring, I was fixing stone walls in the woods. My priorities are truly warped.

Great report.
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cgr
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Re: Whale Watch + Camping, Provincetown, April 13-14, 2012

Post by cgr »

Norm, I think those small fish are Sand Lance(eels) and they are what brings the whales in.
TraceyJ
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Re: Whale Watch + Camping, Provincetown, April 13-14, 2012

Post by TraceyJ »

Very nice report Norm, and as always, great pictures.
Thanks for planning. It was a wonderful time.

Thanks, everyone.

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centered
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Re: Whale Watch + Camping, Provincetown, April 13-14, 2012

Post by centered »

What an incredible day, in many ways! Great weather, company and plenty of a whales and dolphins to see. Many thanks for all the weekend planning, pics and report, Norm. I love your pics, too, Archie. Some really nice shots!
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Re: Whale Watch + Camping, Provincetown, April 13-14, 2012

Post by Birdseye »

Another great report and a great turn out. If I didn't know any better I'd think it was summer already. And that P-Town water was seriously inviting me to take a swim, that is.... until I put my hand in it. Thanks Norm. Good seeing everyone.
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noseykate
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Re: Whale Watch + Camping, Provincetown, April 13-14, 2012

Post by noseykate »

couldn't have asked for a better day for it, and that's an impressive list of wildlife spotted! Loved it that you got so close to a fin whale! They are enormous!

NK
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Re: Whale Watch + Camping, Provincetown, April 13-14, 2012

Post by kayakerjnj »

Great day, great group, great to be out on such a stellar day!

Thanks Norm for another one of your fabulously constructed Trip Reports!
Paddle with a big smile, its contagious 8)


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norm
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Re: Whale Watch + Camping, Provincetown, April 13-14, 2012

Post by norm »

I didn't mean to leave out Bea's Facebook album, but I didn't see it before I finished up the original posting of this report last night. I tried to check it first thing in the morning but was initially blocked by corporate wireless security. Finally checked from another system and saw Bea has an album with pictures from Friday and Saturday with captions and everything.

So, I added a link to Bea's Facebook album at the bottom of the trip report along with Archee's and Sandy's. I hope everyone is able to view them ok.

Sorry for the delay Bea.

Here is the link to Bea's Facebook album:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fb ... =1&theater
NorwayLady
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Re: Whale Watch + Camping, Provincetown, April 13-14, 2012

Post by NorwayLady »

Thank you to Wild Turkey instigator Norm for making the trip happen, and thank you to Briggsy for working on logistics with Norm. Some totally jaw-dropping moments on the water, and I will always remember the sound these huge creators make.

Here is the public Facebook link to my photo album if the one Norm posted does not work.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 5bf05f83bc

Bea
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cychan
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Re: Whale Watch + Camping, Provincetown, April 13-14, 2012

Post by cychan »

We had a wonderful and hope to join you all again soon. Here is the facebook link:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 099&type=1

Thanks,
James and Cindy
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Re: Whale Watch + Camping, Provincetown, April 13-14, 2012

Post by KAYAK KEN »

That was a day to remember! Great to meet some new folks. Thanks Norm for putting this one together, your the man with the plan,and report to boot. Ken
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norm
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Re: Whale Watch + Camping, Provincetown, April 13-14, 2012

Post by norm »

Added links to the trip report pointing to Cindy and James Facebook album and a second Facebook album by Archee that contains all photos of birds.
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