10th March - Marissa Bay, Sri Lanka

It wasn't the earliest of starts, leaving the hotel just after sunrise.  We drove through the village of Marissa, familiar streets and sights from previous visits here on our last two trips.  We pulled into the car park of the Marissa Water Sports company, another familiar sight (the photo was taken when we returned, hence the light, but I thought it fitted better here).

There were familiar faces as we checked in, however today would be different we were going out in a small boat, just us on board and a driver and guide.  This was not what we expected and really not what we wanted, but we had no choice now.  We walked to the harbour, put on the life jackets and settled in.  The fishing boats in the harbour were as colourful as ever in the morning light.

The designs and names are always interesting to see

Greater Crested Terns on one of the fishing boats.

Boats coming in from the night's fishing.

We headed out into quite a swell and with a small boat this meant we were getting wet as the boat broke the waves.  As a result I kept the camera well out of the way.  We could see other boats ahead of us and the hope as always is that they find something.

It turned out that they had as we came across a pod of over a hundred Spinner Dolphins.  The dolphins were all around us, breaking the water.  There were also local fishermen in small boats as the presence of the dolphins means that there was probably Yellow-fin Tuna about and the dolphins were feeding on them.

These dolphins are very active, leaping out of the water and one or two living up to their name by spinning high into the air.

It wasn't easy photographing from the small boat as you are too low down and can't anticipate where the dolphins will be.

A young dolphin alongside its mother.

The closest I got to a full leap.

We moved on from the dolphins and set off in search of bigger things. We saw a couple, but these were oil tankers and not the whales we hoped for.  After searching for some time we came across a pod of Risso's Dolphin, but if the Spinners were difficult to photograph these were nearly impossible.  This was the only acceptable one I got and it was just a dorsal fin.  I did though see them.

There was more searching but without any luck and we headed back to shore, missing out on a whale sighting, which was a big shame, but that is nature.

As we came into the harbour there were Whiskered Terns fishing around the still water.

I also managed to get one of the Greater Crested Terns.

We made our way back to the offices and then back to the hotel.  The rest of our time in Weligama bay would be at leisure.