Going South to Figueira

After a few days working in Porto with the help of guests, Clavadel received her new stable crew, and third round of international crewmembers. Coming from the UK, we got Karis Baker and Ben Johnson. Karis is a colleague of mine at the Molecular Ecology Research Group at Durham University, working on population genetics of roe deer. Ben johnson is Karis boyfriend and works as a mechanical engineer of airplanes and big ships.

Karis Baker

Ben Johnson

The third member is already a veteran on board Clavadel. Neftalí Sílllero is a post-doc researcher at the University of Porto on remote sensing applied to biogeographical studies of amphibians and reptiles. He was the second helmsman in last year expedition and he was on board the dingy on the day the first biopsy sample of the project was collected, and the first ever in mainland Portugal. With him, he brought a friend from Andaluzia he met at Doñana Natural Park, Esther Alberca.

Neftalí Síllero

Esther Alberca

So at this point Clavadel had a luxury crew to head South to Figueira and start sampling in that region. We were planned to go south on the 21st,probably on engine in the beginning of the day, but hopefully get some wind at some time of the day and sail. It was not a bad forecast at all, so I tell everyone to be ready to get up early to be leaving at 0500. However, when I woke up at 0400 I heard this high pitched horn sounding at regular intervals and hoped, seriously hoped that it wasn't what I was thinking. However, when I looked out of the my cabin's hatch I realized that it was precisely what I was thinking... the thickest fog had settled in and it was so thick that I couldn't even see the red light that marks the entrance of the marina (around 100 meters). As we don't have a radar, and Porto is a very busy port, I was not going to risk go out. I decided to get up every hour and check the fog had lifted and the make a decision. The fog eventually lifted... at around 1430!!! Going South had to wait until the next day. Fortunately, the next day I woke up to see no fog. No wind as well, but we had to go South anyway, and the forecast predicted some wind for the afternoon, so we got in our way.

Everything was fine until about after 2 hours (around Espinho) when Neftalí turns to me and says "Fog seems to be settling in.". Three minutes later we had a visibility of less than 10 meters! It was time for everyone to be watching, and obviously using the foghorn. But instead of worrying too much, suddenly we were just having fun blowing the foghorn!

At some point it was clear the fog was there to stay, and we couldn't turn back as fog in Porto means we would have to sail in the middle of huge tankers and cargo ships blindfolded. The question was, should we stop in Aveiro and wait, or just keep going to Figueira. In order to have an idea on the weather further South, I called Zé (he's from Aveiro) to know how was the weather in Aveiro. He wasn't in Aveiro but was in Espinho, and said the weather was perfectly clear. Talking to another person in Figueira revealed the same thing. It was clear that the fog had settle offshore but not nearshore. So we made a slight change in course to approach shore and soon we were in a much lighter fog, and with enough visibility to be safe. At 2 miles of land we could barely see it, but that meant we had at least 2 miles of visibility. As we were passing Aveiro the wind rose up, and soon we were sailing very comfortably towards Figueira. Our trip was finally going smoothly!

At around 2000 we moored at Figueira marina and had a very reinvigorating dinner at a nearby restaurant. Next day, we were going out early to sample dolphins in the area. We saw some dolphins on our way down near cape Mondego, and when asking local navy police he told me they were usually seen near the position we saw them earlier. So next day we were going North of cape Mondego to look for dolphins.

Second week in Porto

The day João and Paulo left, the new volunteer arrived. Telma Pereira is the third volunteer to come through Vertigem and came to stay for two weeks. As we went back to the marina we talked about several aspects of the project, and about how the daily routine would be like. During this second week, we received several guests on board to see what the work consisted about. These guests came after a formal invitation I made to researchers in the lab where I worked before starting this project (CIBIO), which, to my surprise, resulted in several interested people wanting to come on board. Until the new stable volunteers arrived two days later, we were able to carry our work using solely these guests. On the first day Ana Mendonça came back on board for a days fieldwork, bringing a friend with her, meaning we would have 4 people on board.

Telma Pereira

Ana and her guest

The sea was relatively quiet that day, but dolphins were not collaborating. Once we found them, me and Ana got into the dingy but didn't get any chance to sample. We did collect a sample though, but from a dead common dolphin we found floating.

We might be tempted to determine the cause of death of the animal, but the truth is, besides being very difficult to determine exactly what the cause of death was, the hypothesis most likely to be true is pretty much irrelevant. Dolphins, like any other animal, eventually die from a number of natural causes, and when they do they tend to float for several days until decomposition causes them to sink. That is also the reason why it is important to collect biopsy samples from live animals rather than rely on strandings solely. However, if integrated with biopsy samples, a stranded animal might be valuable, reason why we collected a sample from the dead animal. So although the day was not perfect, we still managed to collect a sample!

Eventually the wind got stronger and we had to get back. Fortunately, the fact that there's wind means we can come back sailing and save fuel. As were coming back, we had a very interesting conversation about science and the future of population genetic analysis!

On the next day Miguel Fonseca joined us as a guest. However, given we were only three on board, Miguel would had to work as well. He wasn't too concerned about it though, and soon we were both in the dingy sampling some dolphins.Fortunately, and to contrast with the last few days, we got 3 samples. Not bad! Again, as we were coming back, the conversation subject was again science but this time on the new challenges that researchers are facing with phylogenetic inference, and what they are doing to deal with it!

Then, we finally received the new volunteers, the second round of international crew. They would be staying for a week. Their first task however, was not dolphin related but involved sewing a piece of the mainsail that had ripped. Fortunately, the week before I was able to get some repairing material from Pires de Lima, a Portuguese sailmaker who also made the sails on this boat. He was kind enough to give me some spares he had that allowed me to repair it. We did it very effectively though, we did it quickly and the next days of sailing confirmed the solidity of the repair. So, two new flags need to be hoisted on our blog!

Sampling, however was tough. In spite of our best efforts, strong winds and the elusive behaviour of the animals stopped us from getting a satisfactory number of samples. Not bad, by all means, but still a bit lower than we would have liked. A variety of different guests joined us. The first, Ana Rocha, a sailing teacher that was getting ready to apply for a masters degree, contacted me seeking some advice on how to get into research on cetaceans. I told her to come on board for a day and see how the routine was and exchange some ideas. I think she enjoyed the day, and I hope our advices were useful. On another day we had Sónia Ferreira on board, a researcher from CIBIO working on insects,which means this was a quite different day for her. The day wasn't optimal though, and we had to face some quite strong winds. Sara Rocha, another researcher from CIBIO, this time working on lizard population genetics in the island of the Indian Ocean,came along with her brother, André. They did see some dolphins, but again the strong winds made it a short day. They did sail quite a bit though! Finally, Dr.Luzia Sousa, the curator from the Natural History Museum of the Porto Faculty of Sciences joined us for a day. I was glad to hear that she had enjoyed her day very much, and that she was very pleased with the contact when was able to have with dolphins and their unique behaviour.

At the end of the week, we had collected 11 samples from wild dolphins in Porto plus 1 from the dead animal. Not ideal but not bad given this was the first time anyone was studying wild dolphins in this region. We still had a few days until the arrival of the new crew were we could try and get more samples, but weather was unstable and it was hard to predict if we could do any sampling. We would soon have to move the the next sampling location, Figueira-da-Foz, because time is limited, and we need to get samples from other regions of the country, not only Porto.

First week in Porto

After arriving in Porto me and 1st mate spent one day sorting out Clavadel and getting her ready for fieldwork. We also took the time to rest for a bit. That same day, at the end of the evening, the next two volunteers would be arriving. At around 2200 they arrived with just some small bags and a couple of sleeping bags. As soon as they arrived I quickly introduced them to the boat, showed them the boat quarters and let them decide where they would sleep. As soon as they arrived it was clear I was facing two very enthusiastic people and extremely interested in the work, as we spent quite a while talking about the project an its scientific implications. Our conversation had to wait though, as it was already late and we had to get up early the next day to go to fuel and get us going out to sea and try and identify the area were dolphins usually hang around.

So, next day we started with our new crew, Paulo Serrano and João Dias. Paulo and João both heard of this project through the NGO Vertigem who advertised volunteer positions for this project.

Paulo Serrano


João Dias

However, our hopes of starting early the next day were soon shattered. Apparently, there is no fuel available on Tuesdays!!! Fortunately, some marina workers borrowed us two 25 litres bottles to go to the next petrol station to get some diesel we could use for the day. While we were doing this, Paulo started talking to one of the workers who's a former fisherman. He confirmed the information we had from a friend of Zé that dolphins could be found at around 4-6 miles from coast and were apparently very common. He said though, that we would have problems approaching them because it was an area that fishermen constantly used. Paulo eventually was able to get the information that whenever they could, fishermen would "wrap" dolphins, that being the reason they were suspicious. At this time we could not confirm the veracity of this, so we just decided to go out to the position we had and wait to see.

We finally leave port and set course to around 6 miles offshore slightly to the North of Porto. Our plan was to scout transects parallel to the coast, at different distances from the coast. The sky was bit cloudy, but the sea was very calm. To my surprise though, we didn't really need to do much searching. Even before we got to our first transect, we found dolphins without even needing to look for them!!! After looking at them and taking some pictures, me, 1st mate and Paulo got into the dingy to start sampling.



However, as we approached the group (that was feeding at this point) most of the group just fled as fast as they could (in the case of commons this means REALLY fast!!!). Even with our light and fast dingy, we could never follow them so we stayed with the few that kept feeding. However, as soon as they were finished feeding, they did the exact same thing as the others, just swam for it! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. In no time, they were gone! We kept looking, but we never really found any more dolphins that day. At least we knew the position we had was reliable to some extent.

The next day, a surprise awaited us. As we were getting ready to leave out to sea we saw the lonely bottlenose wandering around the boats. As we wasn't leaving I decided to get into the dingy and get a bit closer. To my surprise I realised it had a strange fondness for propellers, and would swim really close if the boat was moving, and when stopped it would just rub gently against it. Even at increased speeds he would swim really close to the propeller almost as if unaware of the danger. He didn't react that well to touch though, and would avoid my hand if it could.


The day was getting late though, and we had to leave to carry on our work. Our time was limited because we had to be back by 1700 to catch the fuel pier still open. We quickly found the dolphins and got into the dingy, but again sampling proved really hard. We followed the group waiting to get a chance, but in addition to the group being wary, we realized that pretty much every adult had a small calf following it. Some of them were so small, I would say they were just a few days old. Soon it was time to head back, and although we didn't have any samples, we were now more confident that we had identified the area that dolphins normally use.

On the third day we finally got our first samples. Three in total... not brilliant but not bad as well. The sea had some high but long waves that did not impair sampling but made it a bit more susceptible to seasickness. In on of the samples, the dart bounced of the dolphin and came close enough to the dingy so that I was able to catch it before it hit the water. The rest of the week wasn't so successful though and in the end we had only 4 samples. I was realizing that sampling in Porto was going to be much tougher than in the South. Even though we saw many dolphins, their shy behaviour would make it a whole different matter.


1st mate eventually had to leave, and so did João and Paulo. After 5 days in Porto we had identified the are were we could find dolphins and got 4 samples in total. Not bad for a region were we knew pretty much nothing except some coordinates by random people. As for the next days we just had to try as much as we could to increase the total number of samples.

Thanks to Paulo Serrano for letting me use some of his pictures in this blog.

Going North - Part II

We stopped at Lisbon for one day. We had to buy some things before leaving and could use the day of rest. However, we had to get to Porto soon. Weather forecast was brilliant for the next few days in Porto, and the new volunteers were asking were and when to go to help us out in sampling. This is a dolphins sampling expedition, not a sailing one!

Next stage was shorter but we had to cross the famous cape Raso and cape Roca. Anyway, we set out to leave at 0600 and were just a tiny bit late. As we were heading to cape Raso the wind was very mild given we were protected from Nortada by both capes. It was a short stretch until the capes so we just went on engine. As we approached wind started to increase. It was from a favourable angle but it was getting strong... really strong. I decided to hoist only the jib and would hoist main if we saw conditions were favourable. This proved a wise decision. We were soon facing wind topping 35 knots! Cape Raso and cape Roca were living up to their reputation. However the direction was highly favourable, and we were doing 6 knots. So, things were looking good. Interestingly, as soon as we crossed cape Roca, the wind just diminished and we were soon on the right course to Peniche and doing good speed. As the wind got weaker, I had to change back to the genoa, which I did with no major difficulties. Soon, Peniche was on our bow and we could see the hot shower and the quiet dinner. We were on autopilot approaching Peniche when I saw a fisherman buoy. I changed course just to see another one... and another one... and another one!!! They were so many that we had to change to manual! As we were approaching we saw lines of fishing boats leaving port, all enthusiastically greeting us. Peniche was giving us a warm welcome. We moored at around 1900 helped by a really nice british sailor and went to rest.

Next crossing was to Figueira-da-Foz. This promised to be a quiet crossing, because the coast strongly inflect to the East and so the Nortada would be coming from the right angle to give us speed. We left Peniche and set course to the Berlengas islands. These are very famous among Portuguese people, and most people that went there report it with undisguised pride. One of the reasons has to do with the natural beauty of the place, the other with the strong and scary sea they have to face. I had never been to these islands and soon understood the natural beauty that made them so famous. However, I also realized the stories of bad sea were strongly exaggerated by most people. Waves were big, yes, sometimes covering the entire islands, but nothing compared to what we had faced at cape S.Vicente. They were just normal ocean waves.

As we passed the Berlengas we hoisted main and foresail and set course to Figueira. Wind was mild and soon I was letting go of the main sail reefing. We were now with full sails on and doing some very nice sailing up. At around 1800 we were mooring in Figueira, after what was the perfect cruise sailing. The scary North wasn't that scary after all!

Finally came the last crossing up to Porto. A long, 67 miles stretch, but again with favourable angle. Forecast was good, with some mild but constant winds. We set sail at 0500 but the wind wasn't helping. It was mild and constant but right from Porto. At this point we were predicting a very long journey! At 12 miles from coast we tacked hoping to have the angle, but we weren't even close. 1st mate said it was fine, we would just sail for longer, but in reality, if the wind didn't change we would be sailing for much longer. At some point I turned to 1st mate and asked: "Are you sure you want to be holding that wheel, or should I turn autopilot on?". The reply was, surprisingly: "Well, you can turn the autopilot if you like! I think I need the rest.". Finally!!! after 4 days of continuous sailing, 1st mate was getting tired of steering. As we progressed, the wind started to change. Slowly I changed the autopilot bearing in order to accommodate the changes. When I realized, the chartplotter said "On course" and we were sailing with the most favourable wind. Porto was right in front of us, 47 miles away. The wind never changed, and soon we were seeing the famous Douro rivermouth in front of us. Our journey North against the Nortada was finishing with the most beautiful sunset.

At 1930 we were entering the Leixões Marina and, to our surprise, we saw a 3 meters long Bottlenose dolphin jumping in front of us. It soon approached us and played with the propeller as we manoeuvred Clavadel. It was Gaspar, the lonely Bottlenose that have been hanging around Leixões in the past few days. "Maybe he heard about your project and wants to be sampled as well!" 1st mate said. As for now, I was just worried I would injure him with the propeller while manoeuvring. He was standing dangerously close. Nothing happened though, and we were soon resting watching some kids from a neighbouring Swedish boat playing with Gaspar more than excited. Our journey was over. We had safely gotten to port and were ready to start our sampling. The next day we would spend sorting the boat out (sailing against the Nortada had had it's effects on boat tidiness!) and waiting for the new volunteers. After that, we would be going out to start sampling. There is no time to loose...