05.11.2020 – Rewarded efforts
November 13, 2020
09.11.2020 – Finding fins
November 17, 2020
The weather didn’t make things easy for our team and guests this morning. As we left the marina our spotter found a group of Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) moving through the grey, windy waters of the Atlantic. Unfortunately our crew wasn’t able to track these animals down due to the difficult conditions but had a brief and surprising encounter with a small Loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta). We have several sightings of basking Loggerheads during the summer months when they resurface after their dives to catch some air and sunbathe. Sea turtles are known to travel far and the ones arriving in the waters of the archipelago are no exception. The majority are thought to have travelled here from the nesting beaches on the island of Boa Vista on the Cape Verde islands which is over 2000km away! Others may have even crossed the Atlantic from Florida, covering no less than 6100km! Such facts make sightings with these timid animals very special but our crew was nonetheless slightly disappointed for not having succeeded in finding cetaceans for the guests on board our traditional boat.
As the afternoon rain closed in, the conditions also began looking rather bleak for our afternoon tour on board the Stenella. Right before the tour, our spotter Carlos suddenly called with some encouraging news; another boat had encountered a group of Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) during their trip. The only issue was that the animals were at least ten nautical miles from shore and there was no chance of avoiding the giant raincloud to get to the animals. We informed our guests of our stormy obstacle and they’re up for the ride so we dashed out through the storm in search of the giant toothed whales.
As we rushed through the wind and rain we were surprised by a group of juvenile Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) that energetically leapt alongside our boat over the waves. We kept the sighting rather brief since we still had another 5 miles to go but soon the grey clouds cleared to give way to some sunshine, giving our spotter a better view of the targeted sightings area. After a long trip out he managed to guide us to the animals, who were busy socialising at the surface. It was a spectacularly close encounter that left us all smiling as we returned to the marina after such a challenging but special day.
By Paula Thake
Sightings of the day
Ribeira Brava
10:00 No cetacean sighting, Loggerhead turtle
Stenella
15:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Sperm whales
