Troublesome Twosome!
A 3 out of 4 Day!
For the last few days, we’ve been lucky enough to have had dolphins across the majority of our sailings! Today was no different, providing us with a dolphin-filled spectacle on 3 out of the 4 trips that went out for Dolphin Spirit, and on the only trip braving the waves with Dolphin Mischief too! The stars of today’s show were the usual suspects, Kesslet and Charlie; there was no sign of big Scoopy today, strangely. Activity between the pair varied from trip to trip, with them being totally absent on the 12pm sailing despite being in the river less than 15 minutes prior to it sailing! We first spotted the pair last thing on the 10am trip, where Kesslet was milling around with a lovely big fish just off the rocky harbour wall, and Charlie was further upriver chasing his own under the watchful gaze of Mischief (who had had to return early from the 9.30am trip due to the high winds at Chanonry Point). Both boats returned to the marina, leaving the pair to join up once more, where they headed into the waves and great unknown until 2pm.
Active Hunters
Hunting Mode was definitely engaged when the pair returned down to the marina. Kesslet was the first to make her entrance with an impressive surface rush right towards us into the river. She appeared out behind us again, circling around near the harbour quayside, teasing us a little with just glimpses of her fin. She disappeared upriver for our return, but by 4pm, she and Charlie were sitting outside the marina just waiting for us! Kesslet was happy to give us a brief hello, but that wasn’t enough for cheeky Charlie, who you could see just under the water circling his mum and actively pushing her over to come play. When she was having none of it, Charlie stomped off in a bit of a huff and distanced himself from Kesslet. We left them to it to go up into the Beauly Firth, but as we came back down we saw Charlie out near the cardinal marker. He gave a brief breach before chasing mum Kesslet back into the river with a spray of water in all directions! When we returned to the marina at the end of the trip they were still there, Kesslet outside the river and Charlie further up near the harbour again. Kesslet was in full predator mode, rushing the surface and giving a lovely big breach where Charlie had done his, much to the delight of the passengers who had been keeping an eye on her! Charlie, who had already caught his dinner, swam circles happily with his prize at a distance, disappearing upriver again as we headed back to our berth. All in all, another successful day with the troublesome two!