03.07.2019 – Go with the flow
July 11, 2019
05.07.2019 – Stenella accompanied by Stenella‘s
July 13, 2019
On a grey cloudy day everything around you may seem dull and equally grey. The ocean, with its glittering surface and hidden treasures, had more of a silver shade and surprised us with a lovely sighting involving Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) this morning. While the majority of these coastal-ecotype individuals seemed to behave rather indifferently towards our boat, a few of the animals were very surface-active, leaping alongside us and gliding through the waves of our bow.
I was happy we had found the dolphins since conditions did not make the search easy for our spotter and crew at sea. Moreover, the guests on board were lovely and also included a couple celebrating their silver wedding anniversary here in Madeira, the place where they had had their honeymoon 25 years ago. As the afternoon progressed, the weather turned for the worse with more rain and cloud cover, making work for our spotter close to impossible. We had to cancel the rest of the days tours but, as with all things related to the ocean, there was a silver lining. Our guests will have the opportunity to enjoy better sightings under nicer conditions on another day. After all, summer is here and sunny days out on a placid ocean can definitely be expected in the days to come.
By Paula Thake
Sightings of the day
Stenella
09:00 Bottlenose dolphins
