18.08.2021 – Welcome back Stenella!!

Our zodiac, Stenella, was off the water for some time due to technical difficulties…and boy did we miss her! Today she once again had some excited clients back on board and was welcomed by the Atlantic Ocean with several beautiful sightings of cetaceans most of which involved her namesake dolphins, the Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis).

We met the first group of spotted dolphins on board the Stenella on this mornings snorkelling tour, where our guests were curiously approached by a medium sized group of dolphins in the water. Spotted dolphins tend to display a variety of behaviours between their inquisitive approaches, which always gives our snorkelling participants the chance to get a glimpse of their social behaviour. I love sharing these moments with our guests and our snorkelling tours was one of the reasons why I am thrilled to have our zodiac back.

On our way back to the marina we met a small pod of Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) who were discreetly on their way east and briefly checked out our boat as they swam past us. Our  trips in the afternoon were filled with more sightings of spotted dolphins on both boats as well as a peaceful encounter with some Short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) and a group of Striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) for our Ribeira Brava.

Finally our fleet is complete and our boats can once again work together to provide the best experiences for our clients with the most charismatic creatures of the Atlantic Ocean. This is bound to be an exciting summer!

By Paula Thake

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

09:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins

13:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins

17:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Short-finned pilot whales,  Striped dolphins

Stenella

09:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins (Snorkeling), Bottlenose dolphins

13:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins

17:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Short-finned pilot whales