Friday, 26 April 2013

Tour at 13:00

Report from Elding: In the afternoon, the weather was still very nice with blue sky, a gentle breeze and sunshine. So we sailed out of Reykjavik harbour on a calm sea and very good visibility. It took us only 20 minutes until we spotted a Minke Whale about 300 meters away from our boat. We got a bit closer, but decided to head further when it arched its back going for a deep dive. Then, the captain spotted a flock of feeding birds in the distance and we decided to go there and look out whether the birds were accompanied by whales. Indeed, we spotted a group of 3 to 5 Harbour Porpoises withing the flock of seabirds and just a few seconds later, another Minke Whale showed up to join the feeding.

While we were enjoying to watch the porpoises and the Minke Whale, a second Minke showed up on the other side of the boat.  Suddenly, one of our passengers spotted a group of 4 White-beaked Dolphins in 700 meters distance, so we decided to leave the porpoises alone with the Minke to meet the dolphins - a meeting which we thoroughly enjoyed. When we were heading back to Reykjavik, we were happy to see another couple of Minke Whales and we were positively surprised by another group of 5 to 6 >White-beaked Dolphins jumping very high and again bow-riding the front wave of our boat - the cherry on the cake on this amazing afternoon tour.

Tour at 09:00

Report from Elding: This morning, we started sailing under beautiful weather conditions: the sky was blue and there was only a slight breeze blowing gently making us have good hopes for this tour. When heading out of Reykjavik, our captain decided to drive by the island Aukeray to see whether the Atlantic Puffin had arrived already for this summer. Indeed, we found these cute birds swimming on the water surface next to the little Island. After half an hour of sailing, we spotted a Minke Whale surrounded by 2 to 3 Harbour Porpoises that seemed to have their fun with the Minke as we did watching both species. We stayed for a while and just enjoyed the scenery until we spotted a group of White-beaked Dolphins only a few hundred meters away.

The dolphins behaved curiously and playful, jumping and bow-riding the front wave of our boat. In total, we saw about 3 Minke Whales, 6 to 7 White-beaked Dolphins and 15 to 20 Harbour Porpoises on this morning. It was an amazing tour with three species coming very close to the ship - a gift of nature!

Birds seen on today's tours: Atlantic Puffins, Northern Gannets, Common Guillemots, Fulmars, Whooper Swans, Cormorants, Black-backed Gulls, Kittiwakes, Eider Ducks

- Hendrik Schultz