Today the conditions were almost perfect to go out. The sun was shining, almost no waves and wind and a great atmosphere. To make this day even more beautiful, we saw our first baby dolphins of this summer. On our first trip, we saw a mother Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis) with a tiny baby. This dolphin species is not the largest, so you can imagine how cute a baby must be. But this calve was not the only one. On our second trip our resident Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) showed up in a larger group and also this time we got a baby. This one was a tiny bit older, but still very cute to see.
Later on the way back, already in the marina, we had another special, but different sighting. A large stingray was swimming gracefully through the water of the marina, something you don’t see that often. The last trip added also one of our large whales to the list. It was the Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), the most common whale we have here around Madeira.
By Horst Schulte
Sightings of the day
Ribeira Brava
09:00 Atlantic spotted dolphin
13:00 Bottlenose dolphin
Stenella
09:30 Atlantic spotted dolphin
13:30 Bottlenose dolphin
16:00 Sperm whale, Bottlenose dolphin, Loggerhead sea turtle