FRIDAY, 2 DECEMBER 2016

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsulan: It was unseasonably warm while sailing out into Faxafloi bay with and ambient temperature of around 8 degrees celsius! The sea was a bit bumpy but the wind was not too strong which made sailing a fun adventure with all the rolling swells. It took us a very long time to search for cetaceans today as there were quite a few white caps making spotting conditions difficult. Nevertheless, a few harbour porpoises leaped out of the waters surface and surfaced a few times on the port side, giving us a lovely view of their little black backs. As these animals were being a bit shy it was decided to head further out into the bay in search of something else. There was plenty of bird life out in the bay including some rather beautiful northern gannets, numerous northern fulmars and even a tiny storm petrel. Unfortunately, as we were running out of time we began heading back to harbour. However, luck was on our side as we managed to spot a pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins in the distance! And how lucky we were!! These animals put on a wonder show, first they surfaced brilliantly close (only 5 metres from the boat at times). Then they swam under the water, which was so wonderfully clear we could see the black and white patterns running down their bodies. The dolphins kept us on our toes as they swam under the boat giving us a bit of a workout as we ran from side to side. Then the most spectacular thing happened! two of the dolphins started leaping out of the water!! They leaped and turned in the air performing and inverted leap jump and then landed with the most fantastic splash! What a wonderful end to the tour!

- Tess Hudson

Birds species seen on todays tour: northern gannet, northern fulmar, lesser black-backed gull, black headed gull, kittiwake, icelandic gull, glaucous gull, cormorant, storm petrel, razor bill, common guillemot, eider duck, red throated diver.

Stauts: RUNNING

We are sailing from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. There is little to no wind but there could be some movement on the boat out on Faxabay.