Dolphins, Whales & Waterfalls

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São Miguel Island, Azores, May 2019

After overwintering in the weather exposed marina of Ponta Delgada, our sailing yacht "Eja" is most likely more than happy to spend a small week on drydock to get ready for new ocean adventures ⛵️💦

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Back in the water, we so head out at sea to continue to film for our ongoing project, where dolphins are the main subject 💦🐬💦

The dolphins on the following pics are voyaging common dolphins.

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With many days of perfect conditions, we circumnavigate the island of Sao Miguel in search for more dolphins and in hope to get some good encounters in curious company.

Nights are spent either in the small and quiet harbour of Povoação or at anchor, where the shearwaters (common seabirds in the Azores) keep us entertained with their funny soundtrack after dark.

On the south-east coast we pass the little village of Faial da Terra which is one of my many favourite spots on the island due to its nice forest hikes and beautiful waterfalls. Unfortunately there is no direct access by sailing boat as there is no harbour or anchorage here. 

It is still a very pleasant sight to see this green valley from the sea and think back to the hike we made here with our friends a week earlier.

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The perfect sea conditions provide us with awesome encounters. A huge group of highly energetic bottlenose dolphins keep us company for several hours meanwhile they both feed and play.

So much positive energy these acrobatic creatures spread! 💙

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Not far from where our dolphin meeting takes place, another resident cetacean species also start to shows an increasing interest for us.

When silently drifting to record the underwater sound with the hydrophone, a young sperm whale decides to swim straight towards the boat to have a close look on us! 😍

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Out at sea we often find floating debris including old fishing gear like nets and lines. So we did again this time. Happily no poor sea creatures had been caught in this net before we found it. But it gives a scary reminder of how much floating ghost-nets there are in the oceans causing painful deaths to the victims.

Ghost-nets are fishing gear that have been lost, dumped or abandoned and will keep fishing for multiple decades, possibly even for several centuries, if not found and removed...

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After a full-filled week on the water, we are back in port for some days to charge the batteries, refill the fruit net (very important) 🤩 and to welcome our next sailing friend onboard.

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As beautiful it is on land, I'm keenly looking forward to get out at sea soon again to continue the mission of finding amazing life at sea.

Who knows what awaits us among the waves next? 😇