FRIDAY, 10 FEBRUARY 2017

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: What a great dolphin day we had today out in Faxafloi. Especially this afternoon we could enjoy the presence of 3 different pods of white-beaked dolphins! But let's start from the beginning; we were sailing out under a sunny sky with some wind blowing from the east and a little bit of movement on the boat. The weather kept changing between sun, rain and overcast and we were going out, hoping to find the dolphins we had seen on the morning tour. It took us a bit less than an hour to see the first signs of black dorsal fins and we were happy to find a pod of 5-7 individuals. They came super close to the boat, checked us out from underneath and even leaped out of the water a couple of times. The best moment was when we could watch them most likely feeding all around us only a few metres from the boat. When we continued to look for more wildlife we were actually soon accompanied by 2 dolphins which were bow-riding and ended up with another pod of overall 6-8 white-beaked dolphins. They seemed to be travelling and we followed them slowly for about 15 minutes before continuing our journey around the bay. There we met our third pod of again 5-6 individuals. These dolphins surfaced slowly and moved around not too much so it seemed like they were resting. How amazing to be able to whit ness so many different dolphin behaviours in one tour. When time was running out, we happily returned to Reykjavik. Great dolphins certainly make a fantastic day out in the bay.

- Barbara Neubarth

Tor at 09:00

Report from Eldey: What a spectacular morning to be sailing out into the bay, it was fairly mild for the time of year and there was very little wind. The sun was rising to our backs bathing the landscape in a lovely yellow and pink glow. After sailing for some time two small harbour porpoises leaped out of the waters surface and popped up twice before disappearing beneath the waves. The bay was filled with lots of fantastic bird life including a large flock of northern fulmar and we were even able to see a few diving gannets and a flock of european shag. It took us quite some time to search for the larger animals today but after some time a white-beaked dolphin surfaced right out of the surf near to the light house Grotta. It was then joined by many more numbering 30 or more individuals. We expected this to be a sudo-pod (a few pods joining together), this pod was rather spread out and were milling around. This means they were surfacing very slowing and going in no particular direction. They surfaced many times and a few even came up to the boat and started bow-ridding which was a lot of fun to watch. Unfortunately, time was running out and we did have to start heading back to harbour. However, the dolphins decided to come along for the ride, and followed us for a bit, one energetic individual even began leaping out of the water time and time again, spinning around in the air and landing with a spectacular splash! What a wonderful morning to be out on the sea!

- Tess Hudson

Bird species seen on todays tours: northern fulmar, northern gannet, kittiwake, black-backed gull, eider duck, cormorant, european shag, common guillemot and razor bill.