10.01.2026 – Pretty, little ocean details
January 17, 2026
14.01.2025 – Changing oceans
January 21, 2026
Today on our trip on the ocean we were greeted by an armada, not from ships, instead from By-the-wind sailors (Velella vellella). By-the-wind sailors are small hydrozoans, relatives of jellyfish, which drift by the mercy of the wind around the world oceans. For that they have sail-like structure which they use to catch the breeze and move forward. The string thing about hydrozoans is that although they look like one organisms we speak about a colony of hundreds of small polyps. Genetically they are the same, but each one has a specific role and only together they can survive. By-the-wind sailors have tentacles which will sting if touched, although the toxin is pretty benign to us humans, not like the one from Velellas relative the Portuguese man-o-war (Physalia physalis).
Apart from this armada we also encountered some cetaceans. This time some Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). They were literally only half a km from the marina, swimming slowly westwards. This a a common species around Madeira and the one which comes closes to the shore like we saw today.
By Horst Schulte
Sightings of the day
Stenella
09:30 Bottlenose dolphins
