A sperm whale and lots of dolphins

What a day with 3 iconic cetacean species of the Azores! The sea was super calm and beautiful, and just a moment after getting outside of the port we were greeted by a very nice group of common dolphins! The pod was really active – feeding together with Cory’s shearwaters, as well as socializing with each other and bowriding in front of the boats, this way taking advatage of the waves created by us in order to move faster with spending less energy!

After enjoying these beautiful animals for a while we started heading fast towards Vila Franca, because our lookout informed us about a sperm whale he saw on the surface. It was quite far and we were moving fast, however… right before we got there, the sperm whale went for a deep dive – this meant we wouldn’t be able to see it for at least 40-50 minutes.

Fortunately, there was a pod of bottlenose dolphins not far away from us, so we headed to check them out – and we were happy to find plenty of dolphins with tiny calves! These dolphins, well known to everyone from dolphinariums and tv shows, were wild and free here in the Azorean waters, and it was a lovely sight to see them roaming through the ocean where they are supposed to be.

While we were observing the bottlenose dolphins, time was ticking. This meant that the sperm whale that had dived before should come up to the surface anytime soon. And finally, it did! We saw its blows and went towards them, to take advantage of those minutes the whale spends at the surface and to observe it before it dives again. The whale was a young male, and it was calmly resting at the surface for around 10 minutes, while we were watching its blows. And finally, we saw what we all were waiting for – the tail! Right before diving again, the young whale lifted its tail – and by this moment we knew it was time to say goodbye and start our journey back to Ponta Delgada.