Tour at 13:00Report from Hafsúlan: The sky was at the beginning quite blue and the sun was shining on us but more clouds covered a big part of the sky at the end of the tour. The visibility increased and the wind dropped down compared to the morning. We could even see the snowy mountains of Snæfellsnes up to Snæfellsjökull in the haze. The ocean surface was quite smooth but with undulation of the swell from the strong wind of the day before. We first found several flocks of a variety of birds, with a few northern gannets plunge diving a few times, but unfortunately no cetacean were around them. Later we encountered up to 5 white-beaked dolphins which were dive travelling. A few times the came to the surface before the dove down again till they appeared afterwards somewhere else. Especially at the beginning we could see the black and white body pattern and about half of their body. As they began to be elusive and we saw them just from behind for a while we continued to look for something else. We found more birds like many small groupings of common guillemots but no more cetaceans.
- Carine Zimmermann
Tour at 09:00Report from Hafsúlan: Our boat and the mountains looked very beautiful in their new winter costume out of fresh snow. First the mountains of the Reykjanes were lit up in the morning sun and later Akrafjall and Esja were getting the attention of the midday sun. In the few white caps of the waves a familiar minke whale which had a short humpback like fin was visiting us and spent quite a while around our boat. We had good looks at him from different angles, closer and further away. Then we left this friendly animal and short after some splashes of fast moving white-beaked dolphins caught our attention. We found a pod of over 10 individuals and one of them was a small calf always appearing next to its mother at the surface. For a short while some of these dolphins even came into our bow wave before the continued their way with a few flat leaps, when they swam faster. A beautiful morning with beautiful sightings of 2 species of cetaceans and a fairy tale landscape.
- Carine Zimmermann