We were still at sea on the crossing from Pantar Island to Kalaotoa Island when we woke up. Just after 05:30, we saw a large pod of Dolphins in the distance. Initially, the views were poor & the light wasn't great. A few were seen jumping, but they were still distant. Our initial thought based upon the first sightings was they were probably Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins, based upon the small size. But we didn't realise at the time that they were Fraser's Dolphins. It would have been easy had we checked the photos at the time, but none of the photographers including myself did check them.
Suddenly, somebody spotted one of the Dolphins was right next to the starboard side of the Lady Denok. There was time to grab a few photos, as well as, to just enjoy the spectacle. Soon after, more Fraser's Dolphins were seen much further out on the starboard side, but they were too far out for any worthwhile photos. As the Fraser's Dolphins moved past the Lady Denok, we saw a distant pod of Blackfish, which were probably Short-finned Pilot Whales, but I didn't get good views of them & they quickly disappeared from view. As a result, I didn't go back to look at the Dolphin photos. So, it was a pleasant surprise when I came to sort these photos out to see these blatantly obvious Fraser's Dolphin photos, rather than the Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins we had initially called them as. It was nice to get a belated Cetacean Tick.
As we got closer to Kalaotoa we saw a small pod of Dolphins that looked like Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins. They appear to be small uniform-coloured Dolphins with short & chunky beaks. I had previously posted photos of what I thought were Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins, but which were subsequently reidentified as Spinner Dolphins. But the Spinner Dolphins had proportionally longer & thinner beaks.
At one point, we also saw a couple of Cuvier's Beaked Whales.
It had been a good crossing for Cetaceans. But finally, we could see Kalaotoa & we had to get ready for the afternoon landing.