On Thursday 10 September we left the port of Santurce Vizcaya a small group of people from Toulouse and Villajoyosa Alicante city, ready to squeeze the most out of new marine voyage Santurtziko Baleak . In addition we start with the premise that no two adventures alike. We left the superport
smoothly in calm seas and light winds from the NE F2-3. However, the visibility was not desired at all, but we could see no difficulty to 5 miles away. The coast appeared like a mirage before our eyes. And in those circumstances the fog appeared a Carabela, La Nao. It is in these situations and know first hand the harshness of the sea, when I admire a bit more to those adventurers who dared to cross "the pond" in those vessels.
As we went to sea we passed a large group of 48 Cormorants headed south, and a herd of thirty bottlenose dolphins that presaged a good day. And it was. We saw a total of five species of cetaceans, among which, for its abundance and good comments, the dozen rare Cuvier's beaked whales.
male Cuvier's beaked whales
Two impressive yachts decorated the horizon until it appeared the whale, common minke, the second being larger than the earth there appeared in the areas of maximum water depth. We saw three copies, two of them cerquita the ship, where the huge vertical snorts and backs are putting me goosebumps. Loads of dolphins listing and the appearance of the broad dorsal fins of long-finned pilot whales completed a hard day's cetaceans.
In seabirds, not disappointed at all. Especially since we had no wind, we say, the best for seabirds. Winds from the East, which comes from the French coast, the sea swept into the Atlantic. However, a sea with many Serguera and "bitxetakos" of albacore (white tuna) told us that there was food in abundance.
Fin whale
Long finned
And where there is food, there is wildlife. Thus, after two hours we saw large rafts of shearwaters capirotada both as mixed groups of ashen and grim. Finally, I got my first sighting Baroli Shearwater (girl) of the season. Great skuas, gannets good group of youthful, slightly more than a score of Sabine's Gulls, Common and Arctic Terns kept us entertained.
However
are land birds, the most amazing adventure to our new Alicante and Tolosa. Seeing them so far from land, and in some cases a bird as small as a Sedge Warbler. In one of the occasions a juvenile cormorant visibly exhausted chose land on the ship ... and did so in the midst of people on the deck's port (left). And here is where you see the culture of non-aggression to animals of the British. A passenger, who looked like a cupboard, took him with the finesse that you can catch a bird with such a peak and then set it free.
cormorant
After a romantic sunset, we bid farewell until the next morning. On Friday morning we woke O'uessant Breton Island ... and I had to come a helicopter at night to leave an elderly passenger. The weather was bad ... lots of E-NE wind of F6-7, which were rising waves and whitecaps. This wave but not the boat moving at all, if the location was not feasible for smaller cetaceans such as porpoises. Although some other fulmars and skuas were to be seen.
So we decided to enjoy the comfort of the boat and take the time to expand our knowledge with a photographic pleasant chat with cetaceans and seabirds that inhabit our waters. After arriving in Portsmouth and even have a few pints watching the "fauna" local, embarked on the Pride back and back.
The third and last day we woke up as planned five and half hours before returning to double O'uessant, to enter the Bay of Biscay en route to the French marine canyons. The wind was blowing from the East to go intensely subsiding as the day progressed and were making navigation very easy.
Before reaching O'essant were observed as usual, groups of storm petrel and Leach, fulmars, great skuas, parasite and Pomarine, herring gulls and gloomy, and gabions giants ... also a small group of Kentish big with Dunlin. However, the cetaceans were conspicuous by their absence, until we turned O'uessant and everything changed dramatically.
And is that just an hour after the first groups were the smallest whale, porpoise ... but is that as we approached the turn of the sea cliffs and in just an hour, enjoying like crazy five cetacean species ... as well as porpoises, common and bottlenose dolphins we saw, Minke whales and a female Orca.
observing orcas undoubtedly is the most stimulating and rewarding the ferry. All of us on deck, we, like the Dutch, French and English, had an adrenaline rush as we sing in English and Castilian ... one of the most formidable mammals there .... ORCAAAAA .... KILLER WHALEEEEEE.
Before a small tree and a snort high dorsal fin and dark kept us in suspense for several minutes, until they finally came out of the water and he saw the characteristic white spot on the side. The ecstasy of the day was when he began to make great leaps out of water to fall over and build a big wave. This behavior is repeated half a dozen times.
During the day the incessant charges of more than 450 common dolphins seen in groups of three and twenty copies We were very aware of what was happening at sea. They and the female Kestrel that we approached, the pigeon that landed on deck and we took water, common terns halted in their migration and the formidable numbers Sabine Gulls recorded with 173 copies ... make this day unforgettable.
Gorka Kind regards Leisure
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