Madeira - Day 30 - Dolphins and Whales

I have been keeping my eye on the weather, waiting for the perfect day to go out on one of the whale watching trips. Looking for a sunny day, without too much wind, but enough wind in case they decided to put the sails up. I finally decided just to go and it turned out to be a perfect day.

I was down to the marina by 10, bought my ticket and the catamaran pulled in right at 10:30.

All aboard and taking our seats

though I was already eyeing the netting between the pontoons as a good vantage point.

The galleon went out ahead of us, as did another catamaran.

The crew went through the safety instructions, just like on a plane, showing us where the life jackets were and how to put them on. "The exits are down both sides"

Then 2 of the crew went up on to the cabin top with binoculars and a walkie talkie.

We noticed that the other "cat" had stopped and headed over there. Sure enough there was a pod of dolphins around the boat.

Common Dolphins. They have black backs, a creamy yellow side stripe and white bellies. Our guide called them Madeira winter dolphins.

The pod headed over to us and the other boat moved off.

They swam all around us and under us. By now I was right at the front of the netting looking down from the bow. I could see them clearly under the water.

They were surfacing right beside and in front of the boat.

There are rules; only 2 boats can be around a pod and they have to move away after 10 minutes.

The galleon came to have a look.

The pod, about 10 including 2 babies, kept moving East and we turned and sped off to the West.

We were motoring at a good speed with all of us on high alert as were our lookouts.

This went on for about an hour, the wind was coming up a bit and we were experiencing long swells. We were passed by 2 high speed power boats with their lookouts up high too.

We noticed the power boats had stopped and our lookout gestured that he had seen a whale. As there were 2 boats there already we could not go close until they left.

My photos are pretty bad for these sightings as we never got really close. The other boats didn't move off and the marine life stayed clear of us.

In total, here, we saw: Pilot Whales (about 6 including one baby). They are actually the biggest dolphin and have a rounded, bulbous head. Bottlenose Dolphins and one (maybe 2) Fin Whales.

My photos are not really good enough to identify the different species but this has to be a Pilot Whale because of its size in comparison to the catamaran.

I took lots (make that 100s) of shots that turned out like this. I saw the dolphin or whale and then by the time the shutter had clicked it was just a swirl in the water.

The only evidence of the Fin Whales was that every 5 minutes or so there would be a huge swirl on the surface of the water and then a spout (only about 6 foot high) and then it would disappear again. Fin Whales are the second largest species on earth (after the Blue Whale) but it was impossible to see how big ours were.

At one point we had Bottlenose Dolphins on our port side, Pilot Whales on our starboard and Fin's blowing in the distance ahead. Even our announcer was excited. We stayed out there as long as we could and then headed back at full speed. Because we had spent so long with the marine life there was not time left for the usual leisurely tour along the coast.

The cruise boat in the harbour (Mein Schiff II) dwarfs the dock and the city behind it.

The Fortress from the water.

We were out for about 2 and a half hours and it was gorgeous. Just being out on the water was wonderful, sunny and a slight wind built. It was cloudy over the island by the time we docked and I walked over to Sunny Bar and had a hamburger and a glass of wine.

While I was sitting there, feeling sooo relaxed, I watched Mein Schiff II leave and this monster back in to that same dock space. Both German ships.  My waiter told me that the biggest ship Madeira can accommodate  has 4,000 passengers and these cruise ships are traveling between the Canary Island, Azores and here, sometimes with Barcelona, Gibraltar or Lisbon thrown in too.