Highlights from the latest cruise: CSR 14 (August 15th – 21st)

It was Monday night, the first day, and we were sitting in a restaurant talking about the animals we could see in the coming week: striped dolphins, sperm whale, turtles… We were very excited and eager to see these incredible creatures.

During the first two days, however, we had no luck, and after more than 100 miles spent at sea, we could not spot a single dolphin. Where had “our” animals gone?

On the third day a group of striped dolphins showed up -But still no whales. On the fourth day, some other  (shy) dolphins…

We spent that night in the beautiful harbour of Nice, hoping for the last day. Based on the previous days, we were not expecting much, although each of us still had a lot of hope and a little pinch of pride! On that last day, in the grip of madness, Livia expressed her wish to see a leatherback turtle. Everyone laughed: “Here? No way!”. Well, he who laughs last, laughs longest… two hours after we spotted a leatherback turtle, the biggest turtle in the world, and the very rarest in our area!!!

We could not believe our eyes. After taking some nice pictures to prove it to our colleagues, we kept on with our whale “hunt”. And there it was. We finally found a sperm whale, in all its majesty!

This week was a very beautiful crescendo of emotions, where patience was finally rewarded with some literally unbelievable sightings!
Martina, Gioele, Giulia, Livia, Klara

 

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