FRIDAY, 15 DECEMBER 2017

Status: RUNNING

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: We left the harbor at best conditions: The sea was calm, the sky clear and the visibility great. Fantastic conditions for a winter adventure out at sea. As there was also no wind it felt almost warm and we really enjoyed breathing the fresh air and the beautiful view at the surrounding landscape. Our first wildlife encounter today was a huge flock of more than 100 birds of different species chilling at the water surface. Only minutes later, 4-5 harbor porpoises surfaced a couple of times in less than 100m to our vessel. As these cetaceans tend to be rather shy and are not easy to watch due to their small body size, this was a very nice encounter. A little later we saw some bigger dorsal fins in about 300m distance. When approaching the area, we identified those belonging to two white-beaked dolphins which were feeding in the area. As they did not seem to be bothered by our presence and continued feeding we stayed with these dolphins for quite a while and watched their brief surfacings in sometimes less than 50m to our vessel. Although this was our last encounter for this trip we enjoyed our ride back watching the red light of the settling sun on the snow covered mountains while warming up with some hot drinks.

-Nicole Koestner

Bird species seen on today's tour include: eider ducks, common guillemots, icelandic gulls, glaucous gull, greater black-backed gulls, cormorant

We are sailing out from Reykjavik on another beautiful but very cold day. On board there are heated indoor areas but we also have overalls to keep you warm out on deck.