FRIDAY, 3 MARCH 2017

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: Same beautiful conditions as the mornings voyage which excited the crew for wildlife spotting. As we journeyed out to sea the white-beaked dolphins were once again spotted in a similar location to the mornings tour. This pod however, were not in a whale watching mood and disappearded shortly after discovery. After waiting for the dolphins to resurface, we headed offshore. It looked like it may be a frustrating day onboard Eldey, with perfect conditions but no wildlife in sight. Towards the end of the tour another whale watching vessel had informed us of minke whales nearby. As we headed towards their location, the blow of two whales became visible in the glare of the sunshine. We were also treated to fine views of a small pod of 2-3 harbour porpoises whilst the whales were below the surface. The wait for the whales to reappear was only short and the passengers were able to get some incredibly close views as a whale surfaced within 20metres of the boat. After watching the two whales perform dive sequences for roughly half an hour we headed back to harbour as we were running slightly late not that the passengers minded with such spectacular views of a sometimes difficult to watch whale species.

- Mike Smith

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: Great sailing conditions today, with calm seas, light winds and glorious sunshine making it ideal for spotting wildlife. The sun felt as though spring had came early when at our backs but when heading into the wind, it was clear it was still bitterly cold. It didn´t take too long to view the first cetaceans of the day, white-beaked dolphins. A pod of roughly five individuals were spotted moving very slowly in a restful manner. We spent roughly twenty minutes viewing this pod before they started to become slightly more scattered. We decided to search further offshore in the hope of finding more wildlife. A thorough search was conducted in our most successful locations with no luck. On our return to the harbour, white-beaked dolphins were found very close to the city of Reykjavík. This time the ten or so individuals were much more scattered with passengers able to view the animals from both sides of the vessel. Unfortunately, we were unable to stop as we needed to be back in the harbour in preparation for the afternoon tour, but the dolphins did travel in the same direction as us for a short while.

- Mike Smith

Birds seen from todays tours: northern fulmar, cormorant, eidar ducks, herring gulls, razorbill and guillemot