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\u00a020.04.21<\/p>\n
A day without orca…. we are having withdrawals!!<\/p>\n
After spending hours looking out to sea for the smallest of orca tell-tale signs, our encounters with multiple sperm whales and two large pods of pilots whales helped keep us sane.<\/p>\n
With four large bull, male sperm whales relaxing at the surface they were recovering from their deep dark dives, prepping to go again. With a final big inhale, we breathed in too. The beautiful slow back arch, showing each knobbly bone on their peduncle (tail stalk) leading down to the heavy thick tail. It is raised vertically to ensure a long slow decent downwards towards squid territory.<\/p>\n
The pilot whales were as cute as ever! Plenty of small calves were swimming along close to their mums. They are distinctive since their tiny silver bullet bodies show foetal folds, light grey lines running vertical from dorsal to ventral side. One was particularly curious about our vessel. It continually brought its body higher and higher out of the water on each breath. We could even see its eye looking at us!<\/p>\n
A soft-plumaged petrel and various species of Albatross joined us on our expedition today. With the winds getting colder, one ably looked to be snuggling into its plumage for extra warmth, we felt the same snuggling down into our beanies and wind breaker jackets.<\/p>\n
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19.04.2021<\/p>
After many hours on the water today, we unfortunately headed home without catching a glimpse of the main attraction, orca.\u00a0<\/p>
Although orca-less, our day certainly wasn\u2019t without wildlife. Pilot Whales kept us entertained in the morning while we encountered energetic striped dolphins at midday and then a lone bull sperm whale in the afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>
Squalls of light rain whooshed past us, and on the horizon were more patches of this same weather. It provided an epic moody backdrop, with a waterspout appearing at one point! A waterspout is a vortex or column of water connecting the ocean to the clouds above. Basically like a mini cyclone. Ours juuuuust touched, enough for Machi to get a legendary photograph.<\/p>
The highlight would have to be the striped dolphins. An easy 200 individuals were busting out of the surface, giving an appearance of boiling water!\u00a0Every so often one particularly boisterous dolphin would propel itself easily 2 or so meters into the air! Wriggling it\u2019s body for maximum hang time, it would \u201cfree Willy\u201d back into the water almost 10 meters from take off. Like popcorn going off, they couldn't be contained to their fluid home. Some even jumping higher than the shearwaters were flying!\u00a0<\/p>
We try again tomorrow where we will have a sunshine filled day!\u00a0<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13986","daily_blogs","type-daily_blogs","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-whale-watching-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n