Dolphin Watching

Posted on February 27, 2012 by CruiseMiss — Leave a comment

One of the best experiences I have had whilst on a cruise holiday was Dolphin watching whilst on the island of Madeira.

It was my second visit to the island, my friends 1^st. We left the ship with intentions of simply exploring the local area and maybe having some lunch. We explored for maybe an hour or so and decided we were bored; we wanted to do something a little different. It was our last port so we had spent 2 weeks doing the usual shopping and sightseeing and by now we simply wanted to experience something a little more adventurous.

We came across a great company right in the heart of Funchal that offered trips to go Dolphin and Whale watching and decided we were going to pay the money and take part.

We left the marina in a great little speed boat; it was only big enough for 12 passengers so it suited us perfectly. We found the excursion offered by the cruise line for Dolphin watching was on board a catamaran and it just didn’t appeal to us, but the thought of speeding along the open blue ocean on this little beauty screamed at us…. FUN FUN FUN!!!

We headed out to sea in search of some marine life; we got further and further away, not seeing a thing. It was exciting at first but after being on this boat for almost two and a half hours we were both starting to look at each other with the “I so want to get off this thing” eyes. Just as we were starting to lose all hope and also I might add by this point the will to live and the feeling in my legs we turned to head back towards the mouth of the marina and it was full speed ahead!. We darted across the ocean, I am convinced at one point we were simply scraping the surface of the water because we were going so fast.

Within minutes we arrived at the most awesome thing I have ever seen in my life A pod of about 60–70 dolphins. It was FANTASTIC!!! They were so close; you could see them perfectly and hear the little clicking noises they were making to one another.

They were totally comfortable with our presence too, I didn’t get the feeling they felt threatened, in fact they seemed quite happy playing around the small boats and swimming alongside if the throttle was kicked back a little. They were beautiful creatures and I would recommend something like this to everyone. Yes it did take a little while before we found them but it really was worth it in the end and we both headed back to the ship in complete awe at what we had just experienced. I had also I might point out turned into salt water crystals down my entire left side…..so I got a free spa treatment out of it too, what more could you want from an excursion! 😉

Another little treat with this excursion was the view of the island behind you, it was breath taking. Had we not been lucky enough to come across the Dolphins we would have at least still returned to our ship with some great scenic shots of Madeira and the image of a flying fish imprinted on our minds. Now that was something you don’t see every day!

I hope you enjoy the below video and if you head to my YouTube page you will find a few more of our Dolphin watching experience, along with a few others.