I’ve been whingeing all season that dolphin sightings are low this year, but today all has been made right in the world. I stumbled across 20! The largest group I’ve ever seen.

I cut my engine and drifted with them for 30 minutes and watched them hunt. They didn’t mind the boat and even seemed to take pleasure swimming under and around it.

This large pod was split up into smaller hunting groups of 4-5 animals. Every now and then one of them would breakaway on a high-speed fish chase, like a five year old child on a sugar rush. It was an amazing display of power and grace!

After a blissful 30 minutes of watching and taking photos a German-flagged sailboat came charging in on motor like a war-machine, running right through the middle of the pod. I cursed these total culture-less wankers and gave them the finger in German – which is the middle finger with a little yellow mustard on top. Not surprisingly, about half the pod took off and chased their boat, swimming in and out of her bow. Dolphins love to play at the bow of sailboats.

After the “Germans are coming episode” I started my engine to continue my endless journey to Ravenna with a full porpoise send-off at my bow for about 5 minutes. Below are a few images from this blessing of an experience. More dolphin pics from 2014 can be seen here more dolphins

On a side note – I came acrross a rogue boat today. Was pretty eerie to see it just floating in the middle of the sea, without a human on it. I’m assuming it came off its mooring during the wind storm a few days ago. Just glad I didn’t sail into it at night. Boom!  Pics also below.

Captain Awesome, Gallipoli, Sept 2015