The final stretch!

Sagres was looking good, but we shouldn't keep our hopes high. Joana Fernandes joined us to complete the crew. Joana is a biology student at University of Porto, and contacted me last year. Unfortunately, I had no space then, and so we arranged for her to have a space this year. We did get more samples from Sagres, but only at the end of one good day. Dolphins were either not cooperative, or the wind was just too strong where we were trying to sample. The forecast was also grimm, as Nortada would be settling in strong. One highlight though was a day when we saw a mother-calf pair of porpoises, and were able to get close enough to take some nice pictures.

Joana Fernandes

Porpoises off Sagres

Also, after a few days in Sagres, we were running low on fuel, water and supplies. One day we went out but found the wind was just to strong to work, and it was obvious our time in Sagres was over. As such, around 1200 we put sail up and raced torwards Portimão. However, and just like before, we arrived at Portimão with absolutely no wind. I'm always amazed at how different the weather patterns change in just 20 miles off the coast of Algarve!

The next day we had what was probably the most amazing day of this fieldseason. We found dolphins off Portimão soon after leaving. The weather was brilliant, and we spent the entire day in the company of dolphins. We were able to collect all the kind of information we wanted, and also collected a very good number of samples. We also witnessed a large variety behaviours in what almos looked like a class in dolphin social behavior. The heat was also almost unbearable, and the crew collected water from the sea to try and cool off several times! It was also the day in which the on board camera reached, and passed, the 2 million pictures mark!

With the extreme heat, and the long hours of work, exhaustion quickly sets in.

This leaves in our last stretch of fieldseason. Coming back to Portimão after being around the whole coast makes it feel like we are coming back home. The forecast is good, and it looks like we will have a quite end of fieldseason. After 6600 miles, it is a welcome change in routine!