Cold Cruise

Under a winter-blue sky and a breezy 44 degrees, we boarded the Sea Mist for a seal watch cruise around the Thimble Islands.  The seals come from Nova Scotia and other points north to winter in Long Island Sound, feasting on any kind of fish, from herring to their favorite–black fish.

It was a beautiful day, and the last cruise an hour earlier reported a count of 35 seals.

From the cruise before ours

The conditions were perfect – cold, sunny, low tide.  Just when the seals like to sunbathe.

We cruised around for 75 minutes looking for those sunbathers.  We definitely saw heads bobbing along near Commander Rock, pictured above.  But that was about it.

These gray seals, averaging around 8 feet long and 700 pounds, can stay submerged for 27 minutes and dive to 1400 feet.  Long Island Sound today ranged from 4.5 feet deep to a few times that during the low tide.  Not too many places for them to hide.  Hmmm.

Sometimes, the luck’s not with you.  But who can complain?  The air was fresh, the cold bracing.  And there was all that water and sky.  A pretty good deal, seals or no seals.

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