Tour at 13:00
Conditions eased slightly this afternoon, with the sea being a little calmer and wind a little weaker, however it still felt extremely cold heading into the wind. Afternoon seeing the dolphins this morning we headed straight for the same area in hope that they were still around. After sailing for 30-40 minutes into the the bay, we sighted a very large group of birds circling and diving and knew that it had to be some cetacean species underneath. Once we got within 400m or so it was clear that is was white-beaked dolphins feeding under the gathering of birds. The dolphins were very active, feeding for quite some time before separating into smaller pods, with one deciding to swim very close to our boat and display their acrobatic skills leaping from the water. The passengers were able to get some spectular views of these animals displaying a range of behaviours. One individual even began leaping from the water and slapping the waters surface repeatedly. After viewing these dolphins for quite some time we headed off in search again. As we reached the furthest limits of our search and began changing course two very fast moving harbour porpoises surfaced a couple of times and disappeared with only a few lucky passengers to witness these sometimes very elusive animals. En route to the harbour we recieved a call from another ship that something larger may be in the area and spent some time looking with no luck and headed home. The passengers left the tour very happy with their up close viewd of the dolphins however.
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: It was surprisingly windy when we sailed out this morning, and as usual it always felt like we were going against the wind no matter in what direction the boat was going. We headed North first and sailed along the coast to get some shelter from the mountains since the sea conditions were rather rough. However, it did not take us a long time until we saw some splashes in front of us. We were not able to see the actual animals for a while and kept searching for the causes of the splashes, but after a while of patient searching we managed to get a close look at a group of 5-6 white-beaked dolphins. They seemed to be surfing in the waves and come up all together right in front of us. Every now and then the whole group went for a dive and we had to be very attentive to find them again but we managed to keep track of them for a bit. Not long after moving on we encountered a second group of this species with a couple of more individuals. They were a bit more relaxed and gave us better picture opportunities then the first group and there were coming close to us and swam around the bow so everyone could enjoy them perfectly. It was pretty cold and flipping' windy this morning but the dolphins were worth the frozen fingers.
- Hanna Michel
Bird species seen on today's tours include: northern fulmar, eider duck, and cormorant,
Tour at 9:00: RUNNING
Tour at 13:00: RUNNING
We will be sailing out from Reykjavík's Old harbour today. It is sunny but cold and a little windy that should slow down with the day.
- Image
- Image
- Image
