Tour at 17:00
In the evening, we sailed out once more on this relatively rough, but nice day in Iceland. This time, we decided to visit Akurey in the beginning of the tour to visit the Atlantic Puffins at their breeding grounds. After saying hello to these birds of the Auk family, we headed out in the bay towards the area where we had seen dolphins earlier. On the way, some of us shortly spotted a couple of Harbour Porpoises within a flock of feeding seabirds. After this very short encounter, it cost us quite some patience searching different flocks of feeding seabirds for potential whales. Very late in the tour, we spotted a Minke Whale, but it only showed up a couple of times before it vanished in the depths of Faxa bay. Just a few moments later however, we spotted a group of 3 White-beaked dolphins. We only saw them relatively shortly, but everyone and a little child in particular enjoyed this encounter shouting out loud whenever one of the dolphins surfaceds - a happy kid's smile that made my day! Takk fyrir dayen!
Tour at 13:00
In the afternoon, the wind had slightly calmed down, but we were still facing a significant swell when we left Reykjavik's harbour. After quite some time of sailing and patiently scanning the water surface, we spotted a group of 3 White-beaked dolphins, which however behaved quite shy and elusive. We did not give up and patiently explored the area until being rewarded with another group of 5 dolphins. This group was not elusive at all and we enjozed watching them quite a while before we had to head back to Reykjavik. On the way back, we even spotted a Minke Whale surfacing about 100 meters from the boat, but since it only surfaced a couple of times just about a hand full of our passengers were able to see it. In the end of the tour, we visited Akurey once more to enjoy the charismatic Atlantic Puffins - A nice afternoon tour with dolphins, an elusive Minke and diverse seabirds throughout Faxa bay.
Tour at 09:00
This morning, when we were sailing out from Reykjavik harbour, the wind was relatively strong and outside of faxa bay we were facing quite rough conditions. It took us about 45 minutes until we spotted a group of White-beaked Dolphins. We thoroughly enjoyed watching these bautiful animals (a group of 6 individuals). When heading a bit further, we even spotted the black back of a Minke Whale surfacing just hundred meters from the boat. However, we were not able to show it to our passengers very well since it only showed upt twice shortly. In the end, it was the White-beaked Dolphins and the Atlantic Puffins we saw during our stop at Akurey before heading back towards Reykjavik that made this relatively rough morning a good time and a true icelandic experience on sea.
- Hendrik Schultz
Birds seen on today's tours: Atlantic Puffins, Kittiwakes, Black-backed Guls, Fulmars, Northern Gannets, Eider Ducks, Cormorants, Common Guillemots, Razorbills, Arctic Terns