Before the majority of our guests were up this morning, we encountered a red-billed tropic bird on the teak deck. It isn't unusual for a sea bird, flying around in the darkness, to land on a boat. These birds are not capable of flying away once they have landed on a ship as they are designed to take off from cliffs to become air-borne. So, I picked it up and tossed it into the air. Red-billed tropic birds don't like being man-handled, and it attacked me in defense. On this occasion, I got bitten, and quickly learned about their serrated bills. The release was a success, however, as the bird took to the skies and will now continue to entertain us with its spectacular fly-by's.
The first thing on our itinerary this morning, even before breakfast, was a circumnavigation of Roca Redonda, which revealed a few bottle-nosed dolphins. The real cetacean experiences occurred after this in the Canal Bolivar, between Isabela and Fernandina islands, when we had four Bryde's whales surfacing together next to the Polaris. What a sight! This was topped soon afterwards by a pod of a thousand common dolphins, creating curtains of water in their wake as they porpoised up the channel. They were a real highlight, but we always ask ourselves here in Galapagos why they don't ride the bow of passing vessels. Elsewhere, in Baja for example, they do bow-ride.
