A wonderful start into the weekend

Text: János Rumpel; photos: firmm

When I leave the apartment of the volunteers there is absolutely no wind at all. After the first weeks with heavy “levante” days, the warming sun is a blessing! The sea extends turquoise-blue to Africa, where the mountain “Dschebel Musa” glows in a light pink. On the first boat trip of the day there’s a premiere on the “Spirit”: A remote-controlled drone on board is taking for the first time pictures of pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins from the air.

At 2 o’clock in the afternoon I can join a boat trip in my free time and I am at least as curious as the numerous guests who bathe in the sun. Every sunbeam is sucked in and the last bit of winter is shaken off. Soon we’re far out in the Strait of Gibraltar and lie between a big container ship and a military boat that are passing by. Directly in front of us is the first group of pilot whales resting, but they’re exactly in the driving direction of the cargo ship –so we have to let the giant pass by. But in the stern wave we meet various other pilot whale families. I actually don’t know where to look, because on the left and on the right side of the boat the relaxed whales bob up and down. Their shiny bodies and noisy breaths elicit the crowd shouts of joy. We’re not very close, but the incredible number of animals leaves us all amazed.

   

Suddenly the click of the loudspeakers wakes us up from our daydreams. Katharina announces that the blow of a sperm whale has been sighted. The boat turns back and moves with full speed towards the Mediterranean Sea. It takes several minutes until our untrained eyes spy the diagonal cloud of condensed air and some small, grey dots. But then we realise, that there are two different bodies that are actually moving. That’s when we grasp what we have here – two sperm whales swimming along quickly, side by side.

  

The boat slows down and turns parallel to the approaching animals. They keep on swimming towards us before they bend their backs and show their wonderful tail flukes. With happy “Ooooohs” and “Aaaaaahs” they disappear in the water. But just seconds later they appear again. For a short moment you can also see the head of one of the animals before they present their huge flukes again and then definitely disappear.

    

Electrified by this special encounter we turn again and in front of Tangier we find more pilot whales. First we can only see two of them – one of them is Zackzack, the female with the partially cut off dorsal fin. The shy animal dives off, but after a few moments we land among her conspecifics. But this time they’re coming much closer, dive underneath the boat or just lie shoulder to shoulder in groups of up to four animals and seem to listen to the excited murmur on board. It actually looks as if many families had an important meeting here – among the guests are many well-known animals: Ponce, Sierra, Franzfin, Pedro and Baby Hook and also Edu can be spotted for the first time this year.

    

Personally, a huge male that approaches us from the front right side, impresses me the most. He comes out of the water and seems to glance at something, then dives off and passes the 7 meters to the boat with a single move of his fluke before he dives down just underneath me and disappears. A few seconds later he once again shows himself energetically under the bow and says goodbye with a loud splash. The animals stay close to the boat for a long time and we can see their big, black heads perfectly in the calm water. From time to time you can also hear them twittering and actually we do not want to leave this place at all!

  

But then it’s time to return. Half enlightened and extremely happy we enjoy the drive back to Tarifa. How lucky we’ve been to see all these animals in their natural beauty! We’re already really close to the harbour when the cherry on top follows: Striped dolphins crossing our way round up this incredible boat trip. They pass the back of our boat with high speed and show their blue-white stripes. That’s how this unforgettable trip and a great week end, leaving us with the desire for even more adventures!

We don’t have to wait long for the next highlight. On Saturday morning the boat is half empty, as it happens often at this time of year. That’s why there is also a big group of firmm-staff on board. The weather once again is perfect. After just a short time we sight the first sperm whale, diving down in the distance. Then it gets a bit hectic on the boat: Katharina and Eduardo seem to have already spotted another blow, so we race off, stop again, and speed again without knowing exactly what’s going on. Apparently we’re looking for the blow of a fin whale, the first one this year! For a short moment we can see a small dorsal fin on the horizon, but then it’s gone – and also the vertical blow can’t be spotted again. In all the excitement we end up in the middle of a huge number of buoys which are connected through long lines. One of the lines has actually got tangled up in the motor propeller. Pedro doesn’t hesitate, steps over the rail and cuts through the line. When the lines finally get free by the movement of the motor, Pedro knots them together and throws them back into the water.

Exactly this delay might be the reason for the following spectacle: Not far from the boat Katharina sights the head of a sperm whale that just went to sleep. From the lower deck the head can hardly be seen, but the waves bring the boat closer and closer to the said location. And then we also see it: the sperm whale now placed its huge body on the surface – maybe 50 meters from the boat. From different sides there are curious pilot whales and birds approaching the grey giant. Thanks to the current the sperm whale suddenly lies only about 3 meters away from the boat so we get an idea of his real size. Even his enormous tail fluke can be seen in the calm, blue sea. And still the giant is not moving. Maybe he’s still sleeping – anyway we’re nearly going crazy on board!

  

The animal has a big, raster-like scar and his left sided blowhole is more a slash than a hole – absolutely different from the blowholes of smaller whales and dolphins. But then the giant seems to be invigorated enough, loudly breathes in an out and then starts to move – still accompanied by the pilot whales. We can even see his big mouth with the small jaws for a second before he dives off beautifully and shows us the real dimensions of his tail fluke.

  

Like in trance we leave the boat after this fantastic and unique trip and now we are definitely ready for the weekend!