Saturday, 15 November 2014

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan and Elding: today was a wonderful day out on the water; calm, eastern wind, no white tops, and just a little cold. We had a large number of passengers so we went out on two boats so that there would not be much crowding and that everyone could see well. We went out together and Elding saw first a pod (10-15) of white-beaked dolphins that seemed like they had steroids for breakfast and lunch, based on the splashes! They were moving around fast, coming and going and often approached us very close both at the sides and the front. It was a totally brilliant encounter! Then we left the dolphins alone and went further out into the bay in the hope of finding the whales whose blows a fishing boat had reported seeing yesterday. We sailed out to and through that area and even further in the hope of spotting blows but it seemed like they had moved on and so by that time we found we had to start sailing back to Reykjavik. We did actually have a very brief whale encounter in the shape of our first minke whale for some weeks (minkes leave these waters over the coldest months of the year) which came as a surprise but it is not like there is one particular departure date to more warmer waters for these ocean inhabitants. However, this minke's interest in being watched only extended to Elding, for when Hafsúlan arrived on the scene, it had gone down for a deep dive and was not seen again. We then had to go back but couldn't help having a look at some more dolphins (4-6 animals) that we encountered enroute. One harbour porpoise was also spotted by a few passengers on Elding to. It is safe to say that today was as good conditions-wise as a November day could ever be, hopefully the rest will be the same.

- Baldur Thorvaldsson / Megan Whittaker

Video kindly shared with us by Abby Leyhew and the picture of the minke whale by Joseph Le Mar.Birds seen on today's tour include: northern gannet, black-backed gulls, glaucous gulls, iceland gulls, eider ducks, common guillemots, and kittiwakes.