TUESDAY, 28 FEBRUARY 2017

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: The conditions continued to be almost perfect this afternoon. Even though the wind had picked up a little bit, the sea remained calm so that we could enjoy sailing to the fullest. Right at the beginning we saw 2-3 harbour porpoises speeding by. Those who saw them could see their adorable little bodies right under the water surface before they vanished. We headed straight to the area where we had seen Midi the minke whale this morning and searched this part very thoroughly and came quickly across another pod of 3-4 harbour porpoises. Unfortunately it seemed like Midi had moved out of the area so that we continued our search in the bay. The visibility was fantastic today so that we got the chance to see as far as land would reach. It even made some of our passengers wondering if it was Greenland that they saw in the distance. Although Greenland is technically lying in the direction we were sailing, it is a bit too far away to reach, but what a fun idea anyway. We searched unsuccessfully for over two hours for cetaceans before we had to start heading back. Therefore we offered our passengers complimentary tickets to come back and try again to find whales, dolphins or porpoises in the bay.

- Barbara Neubarth

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: What a perfect morning ! We had a better weather than yesterday while we were already so happy about it ! The sun was raising quick, powerful and generous, and for most of the sailing the wind was weak. And on top of that, the swell was almost non existent. With these perfect conditions, we decided to try again to head as far as possible in the West, and how right we were to do so ! It took us a while before finding a cetacean, but the whale we met was not just any whale. It was Midi the minke whale ! We have met this individual for the first time in 2008, and since then we have been seeing it regularly, almost every year ! While it was not our first minke of 2017, it was the first time that we see Midi this year, so this encounter has truly been a blessing. Midi seemed quite busy, taking regularly deep dives, but fortunately for us we only had to wait for 5-6 minutes every time for it to resurface, and it was never reappearing far away. We could therefore have close looks, and observe the typically smooth surfacing of the minkes in its splendor. After that, it was time to take our passengers back to the harbour, still with a bright sun but with a chilly wind coming from the East.

- Guillaume Calcagni

Bird species seen on today's tour include: eider duck, norther fulmar, european shag, black-legged kittiwake, glaucous gull & northern gannet