Fin whale fun!

Has the baleen whale season started, for real? We sure hope so. Today we had an amazing time with three fin whales. They were extremely curious and swimming around our three boats, blowing their powerful blow just a few meter away, sometimes really surprising us and our hearts started beating a little bit faster. As you all know we have rules on how close we can go, but the whales have know the rules, they do as they please. At one point we had all three of them following our larger boat "Song of Whales" - and it felt like they were extra curious towards this boat. All in all I think we also got to see at least 10 loggerhead turtles and we ended the tour with common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins.

Lots of photos today, I couldn't choose "just a few".
And to all of you on board our boats today: enjoy!

Romantic feeling

Curious fin whale approaching Song of Whales

Two fin whales following Song of Whales

Close up

The nostrils of a fin whale

Watching common dolphins

To close for my camera ;)

Common dolphins mating

Bottlenose dolphins

One of many loggerhead turtles today

Happy crew (meet Sandy and Stan)

More fins then waves on the ocean

Today we started with common dolphins and they were everywhere and all around. We later encountered several groups of bottlenose dolphins. Felt like the entire west part of São Miguel was full of dolphins. More fins in the water then waves, maybe because the sea was flat like a mirror. After spending plenty of fun time with the dolphins we went off shore to search for other species but we did not find anything larger - instead we saw three loggerhead turtles. On our way back we decided to pass the dolphins again but this time we ended up with a mixture of common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins playing around. It was truly a gift to have the pleasure to see the interaction between the two species. 

To see a video from today click HERE

(of the common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins together)

Bottlenose dolphins

One of three loggerhead turtles

Common dolphins

Watching common dolphins

 

And a happy birthday to our skipper Veríssimo

Old friends visit us: Victor, Submarino and Egípcio

Some of our old dolphin friends visited us today, we have some dolphins that we see from time to time and even from far away we recognise them right away. Victor is a common dolphin with a flopped fin that we have seen since he was a calf. Part from Victor we got to see his family too of about 100 dolphins or more. Today it felt like the sea was full of common dolphins as we saw at least four different groups, two with more then 50 dolphins. Next stop was Submarino and Ecípcio, two bottlenose dolphins belonging to a large group of about 80 dolphins. They were a delight to watch as Submarino with family spent a lot of time close to us and diving under us. Both species had lots of small calves among them as well, but especially the bottlenose dolphin babies were playful jumping a lot.

Common dolphin

Watching Victors family (common dolphin)

Mating going on

Victor (behind) and a common dolphin with normal dorsal fin

Hello! Said the bottlenose dolphins

Submarino swimming by

Dolphin babies and a blow from a fin whale

Today we had some fin whales around that were to busy to stay around us, but the baleen whale season is here. We went to one area to try to see one but we only got to see the blow and nothing more. Our lookout saw a few more blows to far out for us to go there. But, we had some wonderful time with dolphins. We started with a group of bottlenose dolphin juveniles. We looked around to try to spot the adults but they were not in the same area. We spent some time with common dolphins as well that had some new born babies playing and jumping around. Among the common dolphins we also spotted a loggerhead turtle. On our way back we came across the bottlenose dolphins again and this time the juveniles and adults were together. The adults were busy making babies so we got to see some physical activity on the surface. Even though we did not see the whale very well we had a busy morning full of species and sightings - in other words: a morning well spent.

A rainblow from a bottlenose dolphin

One of the juvenile bottlenose dolphins

Common dolphin

I believe everybody aboard the boat today remembers 

this headbanging juvenile common dolphin next to us

The loggerhead turtle

Photos of the bottlenose dolphins mating

Aboard João Vigia

(can you spot the dorsalfin in the water from a common dolphin?)

Humpback whale and hundreds of dolphins

Today we had a beautiful morning out at sea with a calm silver ocean and three species of cetaceans. We started with a curious group of bottlenose dolphin looking back at us, and then we got surrounded by about a hundred common dolphins. They were busy around the fishing boats but still they came to us and we got to see some small calves. We got some jumping and I think they never stopped bowriding our larger boat Song of Whales. Then we had a backstep when one of our boats had a small problem with the engine but nothing that our skippers couldn't fix at sea very quickly. Its very important to always give a helping hand out at sea and we got a lovely rewards for doing so: a humpback whale! An adult humpback whale appeared in front of us and we all were so happy to see this majestic animal. This whale was curious swimming under and close to our boats. It didn't jump or lobtail but just being so close to such beauty makes us all humble and its a memory for life. The baleen whale season starts early this year so lets hope it continues this way.

Photos from today:

Humpback whale fluking

Bottlenose dolphin

Aboard Song of Whales

Common dolphin

Surfing with dolphins

This morning we had a great time out on the ocean, surfing the waves with dolphins. First we encountered a group of more than 100 common dolphins near Ponta Delgada. The large group was spread out but we could always enjoy the company of the curious dolphins as small groups were taking turns to check us out. The next encounter was with a group of bottlenose dolphins a bit further out where the swell was larger. It was this group of about 40 dolphins that was making the most of surfing in the swell. It was a really amazing experience riding alongside these dolphins and seeing them through the waves and leaping out of the back of them. After searching further to the west of the island we enjoyed a coastal ride back with nice views of the São Miguel coastline along the way.

Bottlenose dolphins surfing in the waves

Common dolphins near Ponta Delgada

Great skua

Second winter Mediterranean gull