Last entry

As a final entry I would like to recognized all of you who took their time to come on board and help me on this task. This blog was initially made to help people participating in fieldwork to follow what we were doing in their absence, but I realize that with time, other people started following this. As such I want to formally acknowledge averyone that shared with me all the uncertainty, frustration and joy that working with such elusive animals represents. 19 people from the most diverse background, and from 7 different countries helped to turn this fieldseason in the most successfull on ever, both in terms of sample numbers as in representitevness along the Portuguese coast. To all of you, my most honest and sincere thank you!

Ana Mendonça

Mário

José Póvoa (The mighty helmsman)

Malgorzata Pilot (1st Mate)

Paulo Serrano

João Dias

Telma Pereira (Pinipom)

Vittoria Elliot

Rob

Neftalí Síllero (1st helmsman)

Esther Alberca

Karis Baker

Ben Johnson

Pedro Neves

Marcela Velasco

Céline Madeira

Margarida Ventura

Mafalda

Susana Gaspar

Not wind, not waves, not the extreme sun nor the pouring rain, not even fog can stop Clavadel and it's crew from finishing their job!

The last crossing: Sines-Portimão

After our last unsuccessful day, we were at the edge fo our time constraint and it was time to move back to Portimão. Usually, this crossing would be done in two steps, a longer one from Sines to Sagres, moving to Portimão only in the next day. However, all of us had time constraints, so we were going to try and do it all in one go. This meant we needed to do aproximately 80 miles straight, without stoping. The forecast was promising. A quiet west wind for a start, increasing and turning North during the afternoon. I tell everyone we are leaving at 0500 sharp, otherwise we'll get to Portimão quite late. When I woke up, however, the port was covered in the most thick fog (where have we seen this before?!)! I tell everyone we should wait for the fog to lift as it is dangerous to leave such a busy port as Sines like this. Questioned what about getting late to Portimão, I reply that if we get to Sagres tired, we can stay in Sagres and leave to Portimão the next day. Mafalda, however, could no afford to do this, as she needed to be home at a specific time. As such I advise her to take a bus that day, as the only thing I was able to assure was a safe crossing, not  a "on time" crossing! She eventually did, and so that left only me, Pedro and Margarida. At aroun 0900 the fog was thicker than ever and it was the time to make a decision. We would either leave, or risk having to wait for the next day. Fortunately, contrary to our other foggy experiences, I now had set up a radar on the boat. I got a good deal on a used one, and had set it up a few days before with the help of my brother. It was time to make use of it. 

At 0930 we leave Sines harbour under the thickest fog, not being able to see more than just a few metres. We never even saw the port pontoons! We were navigating by radar, and radar only. As we leave the prot limitis I set a 3 mile radius alarm around our boat to make sure we would not be caught by surprise. However, the only thing that crossed our way were some fishermen buoys,and at aroun 1200 the fog started to lift. We started on engine with no wind, but soon we had a slight breezecoming from the southwest. We hoist sails andaided by the engine were doing a very nice 6 knots average. The sea was brilliant, everyone was very comfortable having a great time sailing along the Vincentine coast. At around 1800 we start seeing cape St. Vincent, and at around 1900 we were crossing it with a previledged view of its lighthouse, the second most powerful in Europe, with a range of 60 miles and guardin on of the busiest shipping lanes in the world!

After we crossed the cape, the wind picked up and we were soon only on sail, doing between 6 and 7 knots. At this point, Margarida asked if we were staying at Sagres or continuing to Portimão. "You tell me. How are you feeling? Tired?" I replied. Both of them told me thwy were feeling good. "Lets keep going then. No point in stopping!" And so we left cape St. Vincent behind now steadily sailing towards Portimão.

Soon enough we were sailing in the sunset... 

... then in the dusk...

... and finally, into the night!

At this point, Margarida went down to cook us some dinner. AS this was the final day, there wasn't much left to eat, but she was still able to gather some things and cook a very nice dinner! We ate dinner as we greeted the first stars to come around. Eventually, the only light we could see were the light from the villages along the coast, and given it was full moon, we could clearly see every star in the sky striped by the milky way. Accompanying us was on sailing boat that was sailing a bit faster and stoped at Lagos, and a motorboat that was being outrun by both sailing boats! Sailing is still the most effective way of transport on the sea!!!

Soon we crossed Ponta da Piedade and we were sailing inside the Portimão bay. Wind was unsteady which forced us to some sail changes, but nothing special. As we were aproaching the entrance of the Portimão marina, I heard this very familiar sound. "Guys, I think we have dolphins!" I say. "Oh, come on. You're just pulling our legs!" said Margarida as on of them surface just beside us! We were being followed by a group of 6-8 dolphins. As it was dark we could barely see them, but we could see the trails they left behind as the agitation they caused while swimming caused the fluorescent algae to light up. They looked like fast invisible torpedoes cruising along side us. Suddenly I look up and see a fireworks display startin in a nearby village. We were sailing into port at night, with dolphins following us and a firework display... fieldseason 2008 was finishing in the most glorious way!!! As we are aproaching the port entrance, the wind suddenly drops completely, almost as helping us to put the sails down. At 0100 we moored at the Portimão marina. I look at the handheld GPS to turn it off for the last time this year. I turn to Pedro and Margarida and say "At 2343 miles, fieldwork for 2008 ends. Now I can rest...".

"Never give in,never give in, never give in... we will never give in!"

We still had a few days in Sines until the end of fieldwork to try and make up for the bad sampling there last year. I wasn't very hopeful though. Last year, we were never able to find the place were dolphins usually hanged around, and spent many days without seeing anything. To be honest, I was thinking this would be just some quiet last days probably with not that many samples. The day after we arrive inSines two new volunteers arrived. Mafalda was mechanical engineer undergraduate student at IST, and Margarida was a Biology student in University of Aveiro that heard about the project from Zé.

Mafalda

Margarida Ventura

The first day we went out I wasn't very hopeful, but we soon found a group of dolphins and started sampling.We got 3 before they started moving away faster than we could follow. It may seem a small number but in reality it almost than double the number of samples we had for that region. So not so bad. Next day we found dolphins, but they didn't approach the boat, and the next one we saw no dolphins. The typical scenario in Sines! 1st mate left and another volunteer arrived. Susana Gaspar heard about the project from Pedro and had nothing to do with biology whatsoever, but wanted to come on board and take part of everything.

Susana Gaspar

In that day I talked to Sr. Mascarenhas in Sines who owns a nautical gear shop at the marina and he phoned a local fishermen to ask for dolphins. He gave us a position where to start looking. We went there the next day and to our surprise we found a group of common dolphins (after seeing two minke whales!), but not an ordinary group, but a huge group! We started sampling and the number of samples was steadily increasing. At some point I notice on of the dolphins was incredibly similar to a striped dolphin. I was intrigued, thinking this might be a hybrid, when I realized we were actually approaching another large school of striped dolphins. Soon we had one huge mixed school of common and striped dolphins. I had to be careful not sample a striped dolphin by accident. We stopped at 7 when the group started moving away too fast, and it was getting late and we needed to refuel the boat. These last few days were going quite well after all.

Striped dolphins

Common dolphins found together with the striped dolphins

The next day we went looking for dolphins in the same position but they were nowhere to be found. Late in the day, we found another huge group and we started sampling. Sample by sample we got to 10! Sines was now one of the best sampled places, and I was thinking how unpredictable working with these animals can be. You can spend many days without seeing anything, and then in 3 days get almost as many samples as you need. That's why, on board Clavadel we never give in!!!

The next days we didn't get any more samples... we didn't even saw any dolphins (but we did saw an immature common tern that decided to rest on Clavadel for a while!), but fieldwork was pretty much done, and the number of samples obtained represented not only a major effort, but also a major success. Even though we were all getting tired, our success made it all worth it. We were ready to sail South confident that we had done a good job!

South to Sines

After the success of the last few days, we decided to rest for a couple of days. In addition, the forecast was for 5 m high waves and strong waves, so much that many of the harbours in Portugal were effectively closed. In any case, we deserved the rest! 1st mate would be arriving soon, and we planned to go to Lisbon on one day, pick up 1st mate, and then go to Sine the next day. However, when I woke up the planned day at 0400 I heard the masts whistling to the wind... it was stronger than predicted. I thought for a while and told Zé we were not going that day after all. Wind was strong, the sea was still rough and I preferred to cross cape Roca with weak wind than with strong wind. And we really didn't need to go that day. That meant that 1st mate was coming to join us in Peniche and do all the way to Sines. The next we leave at 0500 sharp, however there was almost no wind, and we had to do it on both sail and engine. Eventually the wind would pick up allowing us to save some fuel, but we ended up having to use the engine at some point. Soon we were reaching cape Roca, and the wind just wouldn't pick up. However, cape Roca did not let us down. As soon as we crossed it wind started picking up. 15 knots... 18 knot... 22 knots... "We are doing great finally!" I said as we reached a speed of 7 knots. It didn't dtop there though, and soon wind was topping 35 knots. After the second gush iver 35 knots I said to Zé "I'm going to lower the genoa, it's getting too windy." I moce to the front and as soon as I take the sail down I listen to Zé saying: "38... 42... 44! What the hell is this?!" This was cape Roca at it's best! From a wind speed of 6-7 knots we turned to a wind speed of 44 knots in just 15 minutes. We were on mainsail only reaching speeds of 9 knots, and the wind topping 44 knots frquently. It was the strongest wind we had ever faced in this project! 1st mate was down bellow and I rushed to call him. "I can see the weather has changed slightly" he said. "Yes, wind is topping 44 knots, if it gets stronger we might need to put main down as well and go on engine... we were completely caught by surprise with too much sail on". "Yes, but finally we have some wind!" he replied... at this point, I had learned to expect such comments from him! However, as fast as the wind picked up, it started to become weaker as we approached cape Raso and soon it was back to 10 knots. At that point we hoisted the genoa again to keep the speed up. We eventually got to Oeiras Marina, early enough to go for showers and still have some good rest. That day, my dear mother came to boat and brought dinner for everyone. We were so tired that it felt like heaven!

The next day forecast was for stronger wind, but when we left Oeiras marina at around 0800 the wind was hardly noticeable. We hoisted main and aided with the engine. At some point it picked up enough to allow us to do 6 knots just on main, but it soon dropped. However, as we crossed cape Espichel it picked up again and we were soon doing an average of 6.5 knots on both sails. It was an amazing sailing day, with strong winds from the stern, small but strong waves pushing us towards Sines, and the sea was of an intense dark blue with the random white ripples of the waves breaking with the wind. As we approached Sines the wind got stronger and given the angle of the wind was straight from the stern, it was hard to keep the boat steady with both sails. As we were getting close, we took the genoa down and went on main only. We were still doing over 6 knots, so we were doing some perfect sailing. the waves were getting bigger as well, and at some point I could feel a particularly big one picking the boat up. At the same time we got a gush of stronger wind and I place the boat in the right position to surf the wave.We all felt the acceleration in our stomachs... 1st mate started laughing and Zé picked up the handheld GPS to check the speed "12 Knots!!! We just reached 12 knots of speed!!!" It was the fastest the boat had ever sailed in this project. Another record broken! At 1900 we moored at Sines marina after what was a perfect sailing day.