Daily Trip 26 January 2018

Guide Summary and Photographs

The good times just keep rolling on our boat, with us managing 4 of the Marine Big 5 out on our tour today. We also had a variety of birdlife around which made for a really lovely 2 hours at sea.

The day started off with us hugging the rugged coastline all, the way to Uilenkraalsmond, where the rocks were replaced by white, sandy beaches. We took a quick stop in front of the estuary to check out what was going on with our water before taking a stop by shark cage diving vessels. We got really lucky here when we had a pretty large Copper Shark investigate the bait line. These sharks are known to have a lifespan of around 30 years and have a wide variety in their diet including Cuttlefish, sting rays and small schooling fish such as your sardines. After getting a view of perhaps the world’s most misunderstood creature, we head to Dyer Island.

At the island, we got to play a game of spot the difference as we attempted to find a few little black and white birds sitting on white rocks in between black birds. Luckily, we had some African Penguins sitting at the very top of the island along the horizon, which made them a little easier to point out. It’s really shocking to think that just 40 years ago, the island was choc-o-bloc with these iconic birds.

Next up, we got serious about our seal time, spending a while in Shark Alley with our Cape Fur Seals. Although our seals look a lot like sea lions, these guys actually have a category all to themselves which also includes several other species of Fur Seal, such as the Galápagos fur seal which is the tiniest of the otariids and an endangered species. We cruised by our favourite pinnipeds a few times, taking it all in before exiting the alley and heading around Dyer Island towards Danger Point

We found a Giant petrel sitting on the water just as we had gotten out of the bumpy bits, and went on to see an impressive 9 more throughout the trip. These birds are also known as stinkers as they are capable of regurgitating a really disgusting oily substance at possible threats.

We also had thousands of Cape Cormorants about today, with a large group sitting on the water and many lines of them passing us as they head back towards Dyer Island, where they live all throughout the year. The group sitting on the water seemed to be capitalising on the fish in the area and they were certainly not alone.

Whilst watching them, Kira spotting the blow of a Brydes Whale and we were able to catch up this truly majestic beauty. This whale was incredibly relaxed, coming up time after time for us before it changed direction and we started to head a little further out. In a similar area to where we spotted them yesterday, we found a Brydes Whale mom and calf pair and spent some time watching them surface. One of the mot adorable things about baby whales is the way they seem to launch themselves out the water as they surface for a breath.

This was our last sighting for the day, with us slowly cruising back towards the harbour after this where some lovely soup was waiting.

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