Exceeding expectations

Today was a day that we exceeded many people's expectations. It's always nice to get this comment from our clients, and even though the Azores is considered one of the top 10 places in the world to go whale and dolphin watching it's always nice to be surprised. We never know exactly what we will see during one of our tours, but the chances of seeing something are always high. 

In the morning today we were first surprised by a fin whale that surfaced near our catamaran as we were heading out. This relatively small fin whale is very late in its migration north, so it was a great surprise. The fin whale was very calm and often surfaced near us so we got to see it very well. The next treat was a group of sperm whales a bit further out. We saw several different individuals and the highlight was seeing a breaching sperm whale to the left of our catamaran, while we were watching 2 other sperm whales at the surface together on our right. It's not often that we get to see one of these huge whales leaping out of the water (breaching). We also briefly encountered both common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins in the morning to complete the tour.  

The afternoon was just as nice as the morning. This time we started with sperm whales and again we encountered several different individuals of the family. At one stage we had 3 sperm whales as the surface together and one of them was an individual we call "Orca" because she has a pale coloured patch on her back that reminds us of the saddle patch of an Orca. We also encountered some familiar bottlenose dolphins called "Submarino" and "Egípcio". These dolphins have very distinct dorsals fins and belong to a group of about 80 dolphins. While we were watching them from our catamaran the swimmers on our zodiac boat had some nice up close and personal underwater encounters with them. What a day!

Photos from the morning:

Fin whale

One of many flukes

A breaching sperm whale

The two final sperm whales of the morning

Another beautiful fluke

Watching one of the sperm whales

Common dolphins

Common dolphin

Photos from the afternoon:

Afternoon fluke

The female sperm whale with the white spot known as "Orca"

Sperm whale watching

A pretty-faced bottlenose dolphin

The bottlenose dolphin with a pyramid dorsal fin called "Egípcio"

Watching bottlenose dolphins

Eye contact with wild dolphins

Swimming with bottlenose dolphins

Sperm whales, fin whales, pilot whales and dolphins

Today we had plenty of whales around for all to see. In the morning there were two different groups of sperm whales off the south coast of São Miguel Island. The first group was a little shy in the beginning, but in the end we were able to watch 7 or 8 individuals up together, including a little baby. We encountered the second group accidentally from our catamaran when we were going further east to try to spot a fin whale that was out there. Our zodiac clients saw the fin whale, while our catamaran clients encountered a sperm whale adult and juvenile pair out to the east. We also had a brief encounter with pilot whales, although they were more interested in going on prolonged dives, probably to feed. Finally, on our way back in we spotted a nice group of bottlenose dolphins that was later joined by some common dolphins. It was really nice to be able to see the difference in size between the two species, as well as add another species to our sightings list to bring it up to 5!

Photos from the morning:

Common dolphins - here we go!

Sperm whale and baby dolphins

Today was a day full of sperm whales and new born common dolphins, and our swimmers had a great time with bottlenose dolphins. In the morning the sperm whales were calm and only gave us one quick fluke but at least a really nice one. The common dolphins were playful and had babies that were only hours or days old. In the afternoon we got more flukes from the sperm whales, and as a good bye for the day a mother and calf dived together. When we arrived to the common dolphins it looked like they had been giving birth during lunch as they had even more new born babies around and playing right in front of us, watched over by us and their watchful mother. Its such a gift to be close to these young ones and getting the trust from their mothers to be there in their company.

Photos from the morning:

Morning fluke

Common dolphin baby

Common dolphin

Aboard Cetus

Photos from the afternoon:

Sperm whale

Sperm whale, female and calf

Common dolphin baby

Six species today

Today we had six different species to see. We all encountered the sperm whales all day, with some amazing behaviours of breachings and tailbreachings to show off in front of us. And of course several flukes as well. In the morning we also encountered common dolphins and in the afternoon bottlenose dolphins with one false killer whale. This lonely individual didn't seem to be lonely at all getting along very well with the bottlenose dolphins. Some boats were lucky to see Risso's dolphins and striped dolphins too.

Photos from the morning:

Sperm whale

Sperm whale logging

Sperm whale diving

Photos from the afternoon:

A false killer whale in between two bottlenose dolphins

Sperm whale logging

Lets dive!

Loggerhead turtle