Thursday, November 17, 2005
Dolphins, Dolphins and More Dolphins
This new blog is about sightings of graceful creatures called Dolphins. Our first sighting of dolphins was in Falmouth Harbour, England on September 3, 2005. There were about 4 dolphins right in the bay. They were trailing behind a sailboat. It was pretty amazing for our first sighting of dolphins. The second sighting was in France. To be specific, it was on a sailing passage between Duoarnez and Audierne. That sighting was on September 22. We went to Duoarnez because someone told us that there was a friendly mooching dolphin near the docks. When we got there, we didn’t see any dolphin, but we were glad to have at least tried. Unfortunately, the dock at Douarnez was horrible. The waves at the docks were so rough; everyone had to find a better place to sleep. But, after leaving Douarnez, we saw our first big pod of dolphins. So, that made the trip to Douarnez worthwhile.
Two days later on our way to Belle Ile from Concarneau we saw dolphins again. These dolphins were “common dolphins”. We looked up the species in a book. Common dolphins are smaller than bottlenose dolphins. They are blue grey in colour and have a whitish belly. This pod of dolphins was huge! There were at least 30 or 50 animals! They were travelling at a great speed in lines of about twelve dolphins. That was truly amazing! The appeared to be hunting fish. They really like tuna, so it might have been a school of tuna. Even if we only saw them for 5 or 10 minutes, they were still so beautiful!
On the Bay of Biscay, we saw about 20-30 gorgeous dolphins. They would dive down, come up very slowly, stay up for 20 or 30 seconds, and then dive down again. The dolphins were very graceful. I’ll bet that there was not one second when there were no dolphins in sight. My eyes were glued to the creatures.
On the way to Cediera, Spain we saw a rather small pod of dolphins, maybe four animals. They were playing at about ten or fifteen metres from the boat. They were jumping over 6 metres in the air. Absolutely amazing. There was another pod of dolphins; they were about 1.5 metres away from the boat. That was the furthest away these particular dolphins went! Bryan was just two inches away from touching one! They stayed beside us for a few minutes before they moved on. It was so cool to be that close to a wild creature that is so graceful and gorgeous! I really liked that dolphin sighting… Not only because I was doing math the minute before! (But that helped)
October 7 was our first “bottlenose” dolphin sighting. They are so much larger than the common dolphin. They are almost all grey and they have a narrow nose like a bottle neck. There were 6-8 dolphins. We were anchored in a small bay and they just came into the bay and had a “feeding frenzy”. We had time to pump up the dinghy, jump in it and row over to the dolphins. We didn’t bother to put on the motor in case we scared the dolphins. We were about 6 metres away from them. We watched them jump, dive, play and hunt for fish for over 2 hours. We even saw them eat the fish they hunted. I went out in the dinghy by myself and they were jumping all around me. It was very cool.
In Lisbon, Portugal we went to the zoo. We watched a great dolphin show. I kissed a dolphin on the nose, and got to pat his rubbery chin. Just after Lisbon, we had a fabulous dolphin sighting day. We saw about 20 dolphins. They were jumping right out of the water. Many did flips and half belly flops. It was better than watching a dolphin show at a marine park. It was that good. That day was also great because we had 5 dolphin sightings.
We never get bored of seeing dolphins. We often slow down and watch the dolphins. They seem to like sailboats. They often swim away if a fishing boat is near by. We try our best and write down our sightings in our animal logbook. In 6 months we have had at least 15 dolphin sightings.
Two days later on our way to Belle Ile from Concarneau we saw dolphins again. These dolphins were “common dolphins”. We looked up the species in a book. Common dolphins are smaller than bottlenose dolphins. They are blue grey in colour and have a whitish belly. This pod of dolphins was huge! There were at least 30 or 50 animals! They were travelling at a great speed in lines of about twelve dolphins. That was truly amazing! The appeared to be hunting fish. They really like tuna, so it might have been a school of tuna. Even if we only saw them for 5 or 10 minutes, they were still so beautiful!
On the Bay of Biscay, we saw about 20-30 gorgeous dolphins. They would dive down, come up very slowly, stay up for 20 or 30 seconds, and then dive down again. The dolphins were very graceful. I’ll bet that there was not one second when there were no dolphins in sight. My eyes were glued to the creatures.
On the way to Cediera, Spain we saw a rather small pod of dolphins, maybe four animals. They were playing at about ten or fifteen metres from the boat. They were jumping over 6 metres in the air. Absolutely amazing. There was another pod of dolphins; they were about 1.5 metres away from the boat. That was the furthest away these particular dolphins went! Bryan was just two inches away from touching one! They stayed beside us for a few minutes before they moved on. It was so cool to be that close to a wild creature that is so graceful and gorgeous! I really liked that dolphin sighting… Not only because I was doing math the minute before! (But that helped)
October 7 was our first “bottlenose” dolphin sighting. They are so much larger than the common dolphin. They are almost all grey and they have a narrow nose like a bottle neck. There were 6-8 dolphins. We were anchored in a small bay and they just came into the bay and had a “feeding frenzy”. We had time to pump up the dinghy, jump in it and row over to the dolphins. We didn’t bother to put on the motor in case we scared the dolphins. We were about 6 metres away from them. We watched them jump, dive, play and hunt for fish for over 2 hours. We even saw them eat the fish they hunted. I went out in the dinghy by myself and they were jumping all around me. It was very cool.
In Lisbon, Portugal we went to the zoo. We watched a great dolphin show. I kissed a dolphin on the nose, and got to pat his rubbery chin. Just after Lisbon, we had a fabulous dolphin sighting day. We saw about 20 dolphins. They were jumping right out of the water. Many did flips and half belly flops. It was better than watching a dolphin show at a marine park. It was that good. That day was also great because we had 5 dolphin sightings.
We never get bored of seeing dolphins. We often slow down and watch the dolphins. They seem to like sailboats. They often swim away if a fishing boat is near by. We try our best and write down our sightings in our animal logbook. In 6 months we have had at least 15 dolphin sightings.
# posted by Anonymous @ Thursday, November 17, 2005 
