Dolphins from the Water

Hey Team!

So after MONTHS of being grounded, I was finally back on the water last Tuesday! I know how it sounds, but it felt so nice being back on unstable ground.

Myself and most of the other volunteers took the day to go on an 8-hour boat trip down the Welsh coast.

It was a beautiful day. A little windy, but it gave the trip character. It also made dolphin spotting difficult.

So when the volunteers take data on a boat survey, they have to keep track of the boat track, weather conditions and of course any marine mammal sightings they might see.

It's a lot of work! I did it for about an hour and a half and man, just trying to tell if the boat sped up, slowed down, moved left or right enough to change it's track, it's stressful! The others who have a lot more experience with it than I do told me I was over thinking it, but you don't want data to be wrong!

When I wasn't worrying over data, I was either just enjoying the boat trip or sitting up high in the "crow's nest" trying to spot dolphins.

Not an easy task. I hate trying to spot dolphins in a fast moving boat. I mean, they're moving, you're moving - how can you look everywhere? What if they pop up just after you've scanned a section? Now that section is behind you, and you're looking forward.

So much to think about! I'm the worst dolphin spotter off of boats, although no one was really seeing much. I think the dolphins I did see were a fluke (pardon the pun) or someone else saw them first, I was just louder. I have no confidence in my dolphin spotting abilities.

Probably not the best thing to admit to the world, but this blog is supposed to be honest, and it's a weak spot in my skills that I'm trying to work on.

Anyways, when we did finally see dolphins, see dolphins we did! We had no fewer than 6 dolphins around our boat each time we did see them, and did they put on a show! Splashing, leaping, bow riding. They came so close to the boat you could see them swimming underwater! So many dolphin faces!

Everyone else on the boat was oohing and ahhing, - and I'll admit I had a"wow" moment when three of them leaped out simultaneously - but I was focused on taking decent photo-ID shots. Between myself, one of the more experienced passengers, and my two bosses we walked away with a hefty amount of photos for me to sift through and see who we know was around. A couple individuals were pretty obvious - 367, 032 - but some are complete mysteries! Makes the day even more exciting!

Dolphin leaping off the Welsh Coast

There were some interesting birds out and about, or so I'm told. I wish I could muster up more emotion about birds, but I seem only to be interested in penguins at the most. Oh, and we saw a little seal pup on our way back to port!

Right before a tail slap

So it was a good day. The wind went wild in my hair, I was in 4 layers of clothes, my bare feet were freezing, my pant legs soaked, but it's exactly what I needed. Utter perfection.

Speak Loud!