25.08.2017 – Champagne bubbles
September 2, 2017
27.08.2017 – Childhood dream
September 4, 2017
What a wonderful day. Stars and highlight of this Saturday were the Blainville Beaked whales. Especially during the morning trips, this observation put smiles and amazement on the faces of our guests. Even our very experienced oldschool skipper Senhor Luis was very enthusiastic. Never he experienced something like this with beaked whales, he said. Carlos (Spotter) found the animals and guided us to the spot. Two spicemen of the deepdiving species Blainville Beaked whales were active at surface. For a long time they revolved the Ribeira Brava, which had the motors switched off. Later also Stenella managed to come close and observe them. In the crystal clear water we could see every detail of their bodies. Every now and then the whales lift first their beaks and then their head to observe us. We could see, that they most probably were females. Male Blainvilles show an erupted pair of teeth in their lower jaw. In general, Blainvilles have no teeth anymore (reduced during evolutionary process). Maybe because those deep diving animals feed almost exclusively on cephalopods like squid and calamar. In any case, it was an intensive and almost magic encounter meeting them.
Other stars of today were pilot whales, and later during the day also tropical whale and atlantic spotted dolphins. In the morning trip we had a big family from Massachusetts (USA) on board as our guests. They were in Madeira visiting the grand-parents former home in Madalena do Mar. Thank you for the great conversation and your differentiate view you expressed also concerning other issues. It was a big pleasure having you on board. I hope you come back soon for another visit of Madeira.
by Astrid Haas
Sightings of the day:
Stenella
09.00: Blainvilles Beaked Whales and Pilotwhales
15.30: Atlantic spotted dolphins and Tropical Whale
18.00: Atlantic spotted dolphins and Tropical Whale
Ribeira Brava
09.00: Pilotwhales and Blainville Beaked whales
13.30: Atlantic spotted dolphins, beaked whales and Tropical Whale
