27.08.2024 – Expectations

Are you a rationalist or a dreamer? Do you live in the moment or are you always thinking about the past and the future? Is your glass rather half full or half empty? Before starting your whale watching trip, have you eventually informed and prepared yourself for days, weeks, years? You might wish for something particular to happen. Our everyday life is filled with information on social media and TV documentaries. This might have built up some very unrealistic expectations for some of our guests. Of course you hope to see a massive group of dolphins performing acrobatic jumps, or a pod of Orcas on the hunt just besides the boat, or a massive Blue whale appearing out of nowhere during your trip (or even better, all together in one trip, please). When it comes to whale watching and any wildlife encounter, the most likely to happen is that nature decides to do everything differently to what you expect.

Today’s tours encountered Rough-toothed (Steno bredanensis) and Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Both species are absolutely wonderful, but other than our guests might have expected, not jumping all over. It was a sleepy mood in the air all day. In the morning, the Rough-toothed dolphins were far away from our home port. Anyways, our capable spotter had prepared which species we likely would find. I prepared my guests on board for the unexpected. That is exactly how I would describe this species. Rough-toothed dolphins are very poorly studied, often dash out of nowhere and can be very curious and playful. This morning, most of the dolphins were resting. Besides a couple of heads curiously popping out of the blue, eventually even a quite uncoordinated jump, these beauties were just logging, taking a nap. Our bottlenose dolphins, which we normally observe swimming calmly around us, seemed to take it extra slow today as well. Enough time for us to switch off the engines for a while and listen to their breaths. Over the afternoon, the wind picked up – we tried our very best to find animals, but they had rather left the area or were just invisible to us between all the white caps. Nature has its own rules. There is nothing wrong with being a dreamer and wishing for Orcas and Blue whales during your trip. But sometimes, it might be limited to enjoying the scenic views of the island and the ocean breeze around you. With a little bit of luck, you might cross a sleepy dolphin’s path next time.

By Sarah Kather

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

09:30 Rough-toothed dolphins

13:30 Bottlenose dolphins

Stenella

09:30 Rough-toothed dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins

14:00 Bottlenose dolphins

17:00 No sightings