Friday, 25 September 2015

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: Weather was merciful when we started this tour. There was less wind than the forecast expected, and we were not cold. Even in these optimal conditions and with good visibility, it took us a lot of time before spotting our first pod of white-beaked dolphins. There was only two individuals that always kept distance with the boat so we could not see them very well. We started to sail again after losing them, and found a second pd of white-beaked dolphins. It was a bigger pod, composed of 4-5 individuals. They were moving very fast but came close to the boat, so we could have closer looks. While following these dolphins, we sighted a minke whale. This whale surfaced only three times close to us, but it showed us clearly its snout and even rolled on itself ! So far the spotting was nice, but very difficult. But on our way back we met an amazing third pod of 6-8 dolphins that came bow-riding in front of the boat, surfed on the waves made by the boat at the back, and even displayed impressive jumps and leaps. That was a very fulfilling way to end this tour, and a nice reward for the passengers that showed a lot of patience.

- Guillaume Calcagni

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: The weather this morning was calm, some heavy clouds covered the sky but rain stayed away. The good conditions at sea provided us with hope of finding something fairly soon. It took 45 minutes until we came across a pod of 4-5 very elusive white-beaked dolphins. We soon lost patience with this dolphins because they clearly didn't wanted to be seen by us and we have to respect that! A second pod was found further out in the bay and these dolphins proved to be a little more fun to watch and we manage to have a few good looks at these 3-4 dolphins. We returned to an area we had searched before, trying to see two minke whales. The second try we got what we wanted, one of the whales surfaced really close to us several times, amazing views! Before we left we also saw the second individual surfacing twice on our right side. Back in harbour we could sum up a somewhat cloudy tour but with both dolphins and minkes.

- Marcus Bergström

Birds seen on todays tour includes: gannets, fulmars, greater black-backed gulls, herring gulls, glaucous gulls, lesser black-backed gulls, icelandic gulls, cormorant, eider duck, black guillemot and black-headed gulls.