After passing through Great Round Shoal in Nantucket Shoals last midnight, we moved along the Cape Cod Coast all night long before crossing the shipping lanes and heading out to the drop-off off of the bottom just northeast of Highland Light in Truro on the Cape. We finally started sailing for a beautiful morning of light breeze now turning for Stellwagen Bank. Shearwaters and Petrels abound and we see an occasional Ocean Sunfish.

You can see the site of our 'Person Overboard' Drills (POB) just before noon 7 or 8 miles north of Provincetown. Then we went through a full water sampling and plankton tow station shown on the second chart image. After passing onto Stellwagen Bank by 1230, we began to see many whales. First a Minke Whale feeding on small fish appeared, then ten or twelve Humpbacks were spotted bubble feeding, flippering and breaching. We shut down and drifted with them for several hours! The Xs on the chart indicated the area of several pods of whales. We often saw the Humpbacks in groups, or pods, of two or three.

There are fish out there. We brought up spiny dogfish after dogfish while drifting near the Humpback whales and handlined to the bottom with codjigs.

By mid-afternoon we were on our way to anchorage off Long Point in Provincetown, Cape Cod for a rest after 'round the clock sailing of the past two days.

It was Crista Mellican's birthday today with a great cake coming out the galley to celebrate!

Wind: SW Force 2/1
Visibility: Excellent

Captain: Gregg Swanzey
Program Coordinators: Crista Mellican
Program Director: Alan Lee Hankin, Ph.D.