Day 24: Whale Watching

A slow start to the morning after our late night at Festa. We sadly said good-bye to Ginger and Todd and wished them well on their travels back to California.

We had a 2pm reservation for a whale watching excursion so we packed up after lunch and headed to Lajes, on the south side of the island.

Since there was 10 of us we chartered the whole boat (they only seat 12 persons) and that worked out cheaper than paying 10 individual ticket prices. Perfect!

The company that put this together (Espaco Talassa) was very professional. They have a one hour presentation prior to heading out which tells you the history of the island, whaling industry, types of whales in the area, how they spot them (very old school) and current practices in conservation. Very educational!

After the presentation, we picked out a life jacket, grabbed our snacks and headed out for our 3 hour tour.

Whale watching was a blast! The boats are small and fast! You straddle your seat so it feels like you’re riding a horse (or kangaroo as our captain suggested). I think the kids may have enjoyed the boat ride more than the whale viewing!

We saw 3 beaked whales (Mesoplodon bidens) almost right away. They stayed at the surface for just a bit before heading away.

Then we stopped for a loggerhead sea turtle (caretta caretta). How our captain saw this as we were flying through the water I have no idea. The organization is collaborating with a group in Florida on a turtle study, so we stopped long enough with the turtle to take pictures and measurements before sending him on his way.

Then we got the call there were 2 sperm whales in the area and off we went. The two whales we observed spend about 45 minutes under the surface. Then they come up for about 10 min before heading back down.

We watched the first sperm whale from a short distance away… so cool! We estimated she was 8-10 meters long. Then she did her big dive back down and we saw the flip of the tail as she went. We spotted a second sperm whale just minutes after the first one went down.

After the whales we spotted some porpoises. These were a bit larger than what we had seen on the fishing boat and tended to keep their distance from us as they surfed the swell.

Then a long fun boat ride out to a spot where the spinner dolphins were. These are smaller and quite curious so they come right up to the boat. The kids were thrilled!