Saturday, 4 May 2013

Tour at 13:00

In the afternoon, the wind had strengthened slightly, but the sea was still relatively calm. We directly headed out towards the area where we had seen some Minke Whales and White-beaked Dolphins in the morning. On our way, we spotted several smaller groups of Harbour Porpoises, about 10 to 15 porpoises in total. However, we found neither the Minke Whales nor the White-beaked Dolphins in the area where we had been so successful this morning.

We spent lots of time scanning more areas and the whales were really testing our patience, until a Minke Whale surfaced just 30 meters away from our boat and proudly presented himself a few more times making this meeting a wonderful experience.

This demonstrates again how unpredictable wildlife is and we should never give up hope until we actually reach the harbour. Also, the team spirit was very strong on this tour and despite the cold wind and rain that emerged in the end of the tour, a hard core of passengers stayed up on the outside decks until we reached Reykjavik harbour – Hats off!!!

Tour at 9:00

Report from Hafsulan: On this morning, the sea was pretty calm, it was cloudy and a slight myst covered the two peninsulas around Faxaflói. And even though we could not see very far in the distance, we were hoping that the myst would provide a good contrast to potentially surfacing whales. Indeed, after just a few minutes of sailing, our captain spotted the first couple of Harbour Porpoises and soon after more and more porpoises were seen.

Shortly after that, we spotted a group of about 3 White-Beaked Dolphins, a meeting that all of us thoroughly enjoyed before we headed further. Now, everyone was keen to see one of the larger whales and even though we spotted a couple of Minke Whales in the distance, it was hard to show them to everyone since they behaved quite elusive. But the team spirit was strong on this tour and we waited patiently, scanning the water surface over and over again. In the end, we were rewarded by a Minke Whale showing  up just shortly in front of our boat.

The cherry on the top was a group of two adult White-beaked Dolphins accompanied by one infant surfacing several times right next to our boat while heading back to Reykjavik - a great morning tour with three different species of cetaceans.

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

- Hendrik Schultz

Dolphin pictures by Clare Owen