A Whale of a Patriots Day at Race Point

These are not rocks but feeding right whales

While a  lot of guys went south to fish the Rhode Island coastal beaches for stripers I went east. Very, very, far east. Laurie had today off from work because of Patriots Day in Massachusetts. I had to work but decided to go in extremely early so I could get out int the early afternoon. If I could get out early enough, the plan was for us to go to Race Point, Provincetown and hopefully watch the whale show.

Right now the waters off of Cape Cod are home to 130 of the 524 total right whales in the world. No one is sure why so many are there, but the theory is while the Cape feeding grounds are healthy other places whales eat are not.

So we left for the Race at 1 pm. It is 130 miles so it took close to two and a half hours to get there. However we were rewarded with a whale sighting before we got to the ocean. Before going to Race Point parking lot we stopped at the National Seashore Visitor Center to use the bathroom. While on the deck we could see the ocean a mile away and saw whales from there.

So naturally, we were excited and swiftly made our way to Race Point. Right in front of the beach were loads of small pods(2-5) of whales. At any one time there were ten in view. I had never seen a Right Whale before but here is what I learned quickly. They feed very slowly and they feed with there mouth open. While walking the beach we were gaining ground on whales going the same direction. Also, sometimes if  a whale got high enough in the water we could see their baleen,

The big white gull is a Glaucous, the black headed ones are
Laughing Gulls

We watched the whales for a couple hours making our way to the point where there was close to a thousand gulls (mostly Laughing Gulls but also a couple Glaucous). We also saw two seals, a Piping Plover, and Sanderlings on the beach.

Another highlight were all the Northern Gannets. If you have never seen Gannets feed, it is a treat. These birds dive full speed head first into the water. They make a huge splash. There were so many Gannets feeding it looked like bombs going off everywhere.

After we watched the show at Race Point we went over to Herring Cove Beach where we hoped for an encore. There were about eight whales offshore, but they were much further out. After being completely spoiled, it was a little disappointing.

Laurie coming through a tunnel

We still had a couple hours of daylight so we went for a bike ride. The bike trail at P-town is the best I have ever been on. The  loop trail goes up and over sand dunes. It is just incredible. It is tough as it goes up and down. There are sharp turns and great views of the ocean. Everyone should do this trail once if they have any interest in bike riding.

We didn't do the whole thing today. We just rode from Herring Cove back to Race Point. This part of the trail is five miles round trip. It goes over some of the best dunes. When we got back to the Race there were still a couple whales but not nearly as many. We only stayed a few minutes and went back to the car. I had a long ride home ahead of me.

So needless to say, today was epic. I probably wouldn't have taken the drive to P-town if Laurie didn't want to go. It is such a long boring ride. I suspect the whales will be around for a while. If you want to see whales without paying fifty dollars a person the trip might be worth it to you. It was to me. More pictures below

There were a lot of birds

Dunes on the bike path

Piping Plover

Gannets blowing up the water