06.08.2021 – Silver surfers

The colour of the oceans surface is largely influenced by the glare from cloud cover; it’s dark blue with clear skies and grey when skies are overcast. While this mornings blue sky left the Atlantics surface looking crystal clear, the overcast skies this afternoon provided much needed relief from the hot summer sun but also threw a beautiful silver glare onto the surface of the Atlantic, setting the mood for some wonderful encounters. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) surfed the waves at our bow and alongside our boat on both tours today…and, as always, it was absolutely wonderful!

All dolphins use the inertia created by a moving wave to save energy while swimming, but the spotted and the bottlenose dolphins are especially avid wave surfers. During our afternoon tour we even met a small nursery group of spotted dolphins that contained three tiny calves. The sighting was short but sweet; calves tend to be clumsy swimmers but they too will soon surf elegantly through the waves of the Atlantic and fearlessly approach the bow of our boats!

By Paula Thake

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

10:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins

15:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins