Dolphin Watching - Galveston - 2nd August 2009

Place: Galveston, Texas
Date: 2nd August 2009
Boat name: Harbour Tour
Who was on trip: Me, Mum, Dave
Wildlife seen: Bottlenose Dolphins, Pelicans, Seabirds

At 3pm, we went on the Harbour Tour. Tis a boat that show recks and oil cranes about the harbour. But we saw dolphins =)! There was a long crater ship, that we were riding alongside and in the bow wave of the crater was roughly 3 bottlenose dolphins =). A few did some leaps which was cool.
The boat then took us away from the crater, back into the Harbour.

Pics here: http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/575561615qFIzLV

Whale Watching - Monterey Bay - 24th October 2007

Place: Monterey Bay, USA
Date: 24th October 2007
Trip length: 3 hours
Who was on trip: Me, Mum, Dave
Wildlife seen: Californian Sea Lions, Humpback Whales, Seabirds

Wowie. Went Whale Watching. Saw 2 Humbacks =D. It was a 3 hour trip. About 1 hour was spent searching for them, 1 hour tracking and 1 hour going back.
It was really cool. Yeah we followed them. They'd come up to the surface, dive for about 4 mins, come up and it was repeated.
One time, they did this like lunge out of the water. Real cool. I guess they were feeding.

Pics here: http://good-times.webshots.com/album/562811370ooKmkk

Dolphin Watching - Madeira - 19th August 2007

Place: Madeira
Date: 19th August 2007
Boat type: Dinghy boat
Who was on trip: Me, Mum
Wildlife seen: Bottlenose Dolphins, Sperm Whales, Seabirds, a strange fish

Woop yeah. So me and mum did the dolphin watch =]
We arrived at the meeting point, which was the shop. There was roughly 22 other people in there, all on the same trip as us. We were lead into a cinema like room, where we had a presentation about cetaceans. All the stuff I knew really =P
We were then lead into the Marina, and the group was split up, into groups of 12, to go on 2 dinghy-like boats. On the boats we had to wear orange life jackets.
So the 2 boats set off. The ride was pretty cool. Not too rough, and the waves were fun to ride.
It felt like ages, we were out at sea, seeing nothing but..sea. Saw the occasional sea bird.
The first dolphins I sighted were jumping out the water right alongside the other boat =o. It was not decided were Atlantic Spotted Dolphins or Bottlenose. I personally thought they were Bottlenose.
We saw alot of dolphins. I mean alot. The school was huge. They were all porpoising in and out of the water.
The company offered the chance to swim with the dolphins, which we paid for. It was a limit of 2 people a time. So me and a German woman were up to do it first. We stripped to our bikini's, shoved a mask and snorkel on, and sat on the boats side. Everytime we were given the signal to go in, we'd lose the dolphins. Has, one time we were moving off, and the German woman fell in! I almost fell backwards lol. So the boat was stopped to le ther back on lol. She was ok.
We found some dolphins again, and we got in, but we were only in the water for about a minute. The dolphins had disappeared, and neither of us got to see them underwater =(.
The dolphins clearly didnt want to come near us, which is why every time we were near they dived, so the dolphin swim was called off. Gutted =[. It was possible the group had calves. The group was huge though. There mustve been about 30! It was really amazing to see. Some were only like a few meters to my lift. Really cool. So we left the dolphins, and went in search of some Sperm Whales that had been sighted.
Our first sighting of the Sperm Whales, were of their blow, really far in the distance, which was then followed by their flukes. From where we were, they only lliked like pygmy ones lol.
We got a bit closer, and saw about 3. Then they dived down, and we saw their flukes go up =].
We rode about in the sea for ages, and we finally caught sight of them again. About 4 this time. We slowly approached. The other boat was closer to the whales which sucked for us lol. The whales were generally swimming at the surface, and we saw their blow/spout alot. When we got our closest yet, the whales dived. So we got to see their tails go up again =D. Superb, like the french said lol. It was very amazing. So when the final whale dived down, we headed back to the Marina. We caught some really cool waves =P.
Yeh so great trip. Gutted about the dolphin swim, but I did see them, and alot of them which was gute. And the Sperm Whales were a real bonus!

Pics here: http://good-times.webshots.com/album/562810729zTBLJk
Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voJLuNnLnxY

Dolphin Watching - Tenerife - 14th April 2006

Place: Puerto Colon?, Tenerife
Date: 14th April 2006
Boat name: Royal Delfin
Boat type: Catamaran?
How many people it carries: -
Company name: -
Trip length: 4 hours 30 minutes
Successful or Unsucessful: Successful
Who was on trip: Me, Mum, Dave
Wildlife seen: Bottlenose Dolphins, Short-Finned Pilot Whales, Seabirds

The coach picked us up at about 11.45am and arrived at Puerto Colon at about 2pm. We boarded our Catamaran, called the Royal Delfin, at 2:30pm. There was no room on the top deck, so I went down stairs in the indoors bit.
Gosh the journey was awful. I suffer from motion sickness so it wasn't in the slightest bit nice. Our first dolphin sighting was a lone bottlenose dolphin. It was bow riding at the front of our boat which was very cool. It didn't stay around long, and then the boar went out in seach of more dolphins.
We came across about 5. Some were bow riding and leaping. There was also a calf! They disappeared after about 7 minutes and the boat searched for more. We then came across quite a lot of dolphins, I have no idea how many, and they were frolicking about. It was very good to watch. Once again they disappeared and the boat didn't find anymore. I felt very ill so laid down and had a little sleep. After food was served up, which I rejected, the boat set off back, and on the way we saw a few dolphins and 2 Pilot Whales, both alone. The Pilots kept disappearing but occasionally did a few small breaches. They didn't stay long and we then set off back to Puerto Colon. I was glad to back on land.

Pics here: http://good-times.webshots.com/album/562810988XTeBin

Whale Watching - Boston - 16th August 2004

Place: Boston, America
Date: 16th August 2004
Boat name: -
Boat type: Two decks
How many people it carries: -
Company name: -
Trip length: -
Successful or Unsucessful: Successful
Who was on trip: Me, Mum, Dave
Wildlife seen: Humpback Whales, Seabirds

We set off, and the boat was travelling super fast. I was on the top deck, wit the wind blowing in my face. We were travelling pretty fast for a long time, until we slowed down and came across 2 Humpback Whales! It was a mom and her 3-5 month old calf! The mother was called Istar and it was her 12th calf. We watched them for a long time, and the boat people showed us how you could see their white flippers underwater.

Pics here: http://good-times.webshots.com/album/562801012KPqiSY

Orca Watching - Canada - 9th August 2003

Place: Victoria, Vancouver Island, Canada
Date: 9th August 2003
Boat name: Super Cat
Boat type: Two decks
How many people it carries: -
Company name: -
Trip length : 3 hours
Successful or Unsucessful: Successful
Who was on trip: Me, Mum, Dave, Mark, Anne, Sally, Jaime, Aunt Marjory
Wildlife seen: Orcas, Northern Elephant Seals, Seal Lions (Northern or Steller's), Harbour Seals

We didn’t see anything apart from Orcas and Seals (I really wanted to see Gray Whales though ). Well… We boarded the boat (Super cat) and I was on front deck! 10 minutes after we were moving the boat went so fast I nearly fell over! Then we reached the area’s where the Orcas had been sighted! We stopped a little further away and watched them surfacing! We saw J and K pod! Slowly they started approaching us! Then an Orca came within 2 meters of us!!!!! But my bloody camera ran out of battery >:(. When they were moving away I saw one spy hop! After they had moved quite far away we went after them but got ahead so they would come to us. Then in the distance I saw one breach :-D!!!!!!!! Then one was lob tailing! They were hunting! Then they came really close to us and were breaching, lob tailing, spy hopping and surfacing right in front of us! When they moved away we went to the Seals (and Sea lions)! We saw Harbour Seals, Steller’s Sea lion or Northern Sea lion and Northern Elephant Seals!!!!! Then we zoomed up to try and catch up with the Orcas! We got ahead and saw the odd on spy hop, lob tail and breach. Then the big one =D… Some of the pod came 1 meter away from the boat XD!!!!!!!!! They were surfacing, spy hopping and going under the boat! It was magical!! We followed them until we had to go into the Harbour . I will never forget it!

A lot more happened but I mean c’mon how am I supposed to remember a 3-hour trip?! =P

Pics here: http://good-times.webshots.com/album/562801093teVMTn

Dolphin Watching - Wales - 30th May 2003

Place: New Quay, Wales
Date: 30th May 2003
Boat name: Ermol 5
Boat type: Smallish, low to the ocean
How many people it carries: -
Company name: -
Trip length : -
Successful or Unsucessful: Successful
Who was on trip: Me, Mum, Dave
Wildlife seen: Bottlenose Dolphins, Gray Seals, Harbour Porpoise?, Seabirds

At 9:30 am we went down to the beach and saw some Bottlenose Dolphins! It was soooooo amazing! Even though they were far away I saw Dolphins in the wild for the first time in my life! At 10:30 we went to the boat (Ermol 5) and just after 5 minutes we saw some Dolphins! They disappeared for a while but then we saw some more and I saw a mother and calf! Then we sailed round for ages not seeing anything except seabirds. Someone told me we were really lucky to see dolphins because there weren't any yesterday(29/05/03)! When we started to go back we saw loads! Then when they went I looked behind the boat and saw a Gray Seal poking its head out the water! Then we saw a few more Dolphins and I caught a rare glimpse of a Harbour Porpoise!!! When the trip ended my Mum saw a Dolphin follow us into the Harbour! I climbed some rocks and was really close! It stayed for 30 minutes and I used a whole film on it! Then I went back to the beach and saw more Dolphins that were closer this time and I also saw two mothers and calves! Then I took a wonder to the Harbour and saw a mother and calf there ( I wanted to take a picture but my film had ended ) Then my dad went to some rock pools and I stayed on the beach hoping to see more dolphins but didn't. Then my dad came back and said he saw a whole school of 10 Dolphins feeding! I was really jealous!

Pics here: http://good-times.webshots.com/album/562800625dKfvyt