Thursday, 30 July 2009

The Last Day - Day 7

Day 7 has been a very long day, and also a frustrating day, but still good nonetheless. We got up for breakfast as planned and left the hotel for Tarifa to catch the boat at 10am with the intention of being out on the water for four or five hours.


Before setting off on our final voyage the above photo was taken. It shows Pierre, David, Fran, Me, Mike, Silvia, Gill, Gabriele and Sara.

We left harbour and headed towards the place where we first found the killer whales on Monday. Very soon we come upon a group of Bottlenose dolphins. These were not residents, but passing through from further east to the Atlantic to feed. We didn’t stay long with them as we wanted to try and find Orca on our final day.

As we continued west it became clear that there was a problem with the boat. It kept losing power when the captain tried to accelerate. The captain thought it was a fuel filter that was the problem so we went back to port to get the boat repaired after only an hour at sea.

We arranged to meet up at ten to 12 at the Turmares (the whale watching company) office to find out how long it would take to fix, and if it wasn’t fixable to go on the Jackelin again which sailed at 12. When we met we found out that the part had arrived, but that the mechanic was going out on the Jackelin so couldn’t do the repairs. We then arranged to meet again at 1pm while another mechanic was found. What made it even more frustrating was that Orcas had been seen in the Straight.

When we reconvened again we discovered that the boat actually needed two filters and only one had been brought, plus the mechanic that had been found was inexperienced and didn’t know how to fix the problem. We were given the option of going out on Turmares’s third (middle sized boat), the Dolphin Safari. This would be a two hour trip(from 1 til 3) and there was then a possibility of going back on the Rainbow before it was booked out again by another group at 5.

We boarded the Dolphin Safari, having been briefed by Pierre on the best places to stand, and hoped for the best. The boat didn’t leave port until 1.30 and due to the lack of sightings (they offer money back or a free trip if nothing is seen) we stayed out a long while, before eventually seeing a group of Striped dolphins just before heading back to Tarifa. We did also see an Ocean Sunfish jump out of the sea in front of the boat a couple of times, which is apparently very rare.

By the time we got back to port it was 4pm and we were a bit dejected that that would be it, and it was a disappointing end after such a good week. Then we were given the surprise news that the Rainbow booking had been cancelled and that we could go out on it for a couple of hours. It had been a long day and Gabriele decided she would rather go back to the hotel, so took a taxi while the rest of us set out onto the sea again at 5pm, 7 hours after we had initially done so.

We immediately headed west and after a while found a group of Moroccan fisherman, but sadly they had seen nothing, and once again were not going to start fishing until later. So as time was short we turned and went east and then saw some Striped dolphins with a few Common dolphins coming towards us. We followed alongside and watched for a while before heading off again.

A little later we found some Bottlenose dolphins swimming west and watched them briefly. They were not resident, but another group passing through as Pierre did not recognise any of their dorsal fins. The Bottlenose dolphins turned out to be both our first and last sightings of the week as we had to reluctantly head back to Tarifa for the final time.

We drove back to the hotel and had a swim before showering and going over to the bar for a drink before dinner. We then went in to eat with the others for the last time. We ate our meal and were given a free drink by the hotel staff afterwards which was a very strong drink that tasted like Lemsip and vodka.

After dinner we went over to the bar and had a last cocktail together. Fran had her large Bacardi and Sprite while I had one of Pierre’s favourite Mojitos. Then it was back to the room to pack and type this before falling asleep at about 1am.

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