Thursday, the 12th.

These last few days have been really tough. Even though we've spent several hours in the sea finding several different groups, we managed to collect not even a handful of samples. Starting by Thursday, shortly after writing the last post, we found a group of commons independent from the one found by the whale-watching boats,which was fortunate given we cannot sample in the vicinity of other boats. We got into the dingy and this time I gave some waterproof trousers to Mário because the last days he just became soaked which is uncomfortable. However, the trousers were bright yellow and we just started making jokes that the dingy should be called the "Yellow Mario Dingy" (Bote do Mário Amarelo)!

It was a small group and their behaviour was not the best to sample so we just decided to wait until either their behaviour changed or they joined a bigger group. That eventually happened, and the group just started to move quickly offshore until the met a bigger group that was feeding. At this point, we could observe a feeding frenzy including common-dolphins, storm-petrels, shearwaters and Gannets.

(You can see some shearwaters in the front, with a common-dolphin surfacing in the back, with a strom-petrel immediately above it)

However, after feeding, the big group dispersed an we were left with a small group again, and this time socializing, which makes it really hard to sample, as they not only don't mind the boat, but may avoid it altogether.Nevertheless, we were able to take one sample, but after a while it was clear that it sould be useless to stay with that group, do we moved on. At some point, another small groups approached Clavadel, and i just took my chance with the large pole. I got another sample, bu soon after that, the group was back on their way and we just had to set course to port. As we were coming back, a slight breeze started to rise, and we were able to sail back with the spinnaker on. Progressively the wind rose up, an we ended doing some real quality sailing, with boat toping up to 7 knots.

At some point, Mário made the following remark: "Can you imagine that some guys actually get paid to do this?". I had to agree, it is indeed outrageous!!!