dolphins

Powersalt

Powersalt

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Had the most wonderfull experience last weekend.

Whilst travelling from sark to jersey he had a school of dolphins come over and start to play with the bow wave. I slowed to 10 knots and they came right alongside, diving under the boat emerging the other side with others jumping the bow wave. And then as quick as they had arived they were gone.

It occured to me afterwards, should I have kept to 20 plus knots or was 10 still too fast to have them interested??

Has anyone any experience and advice on the speed to keep when they are alongside etc|?
 
We were on a sailing trip out of Baltimore on the August Bank holiday and we were doing 5 knots and we had a pod of 12 dolphins with us for 40 minutes. They turned with us when we decided to start heading in the right direction! They were doing all sorts of formation diving and one would peal off and come back in at a huge speed and do a handbrake turn under the boat and zip out under the bow - most of the time they came alongside up and down out of the water and then would come around for more. I have never seen them stay that long before.

Another day I was in a motorboat and we had about four Dolphins play around us for about 10 minutes before they got bored and headed off.

Most of the time when we come accross them they just come over to say hello and then head off again - sail, Disp motor or on the plane.

If you ever want a major underpants moment have a couple of killer whales surface around you!!!!! We were lucky in Cork Harbour a number of years ago to have three killer whales hang around for a while. They're an amazing sight when they're close enough to touch.

I think you just get lucky somedays and they like what you're doing. That or there's food nearby ;-)

J.
 
From my experience (which is not accompanied with any kind of real knowledge about dolphins /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif) dolphins must have two reasons to approach you: doing tricks and show off when you're at slow speeds (~7-10knots) or speeding competition with your boat when your @~20-25knots.

Whenever i see dolphins on a speedboat i see them trying to keep up the pace - no jumps over the bow waves etc., whereas on a sailing boat i enjoy their tricks.

Needless to make a joint between sex of dolphins and preference either to show-off or competition /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
dolphins _06.jpg


Its a special sight every time we get them around the boat - SHWBO gets quite emotional.

This was a week or so ago in NZ - one was playing around the props out of sight - for some reason they seem to enjoy the airated water off the props.

I find they like all speeds - slower and they'll play around the stern wave. If we pass through a pod its usually around 8-10 knots, but anything up to 30 knots and they'll race or play. What is amazing is the ease at which they seem to get up to speed!
 
great pics. thanks. We were caught up in the gatwick airport security control and so did not bring a camera this time. Missed the whole event.
 
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