Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: Again we went out with high hopes after the nice behaviour of the minkys this morning! The wind was picking up a little bit more, and a small light rain was falling now and then during the tour. About 30 minutes after departure we had a double encounter: a pod of 4-6 harbour porpoises were swimming towards us and was followed by a pod of 4-6 white beaked dolphins! The porpoises disappeared soon, as usual, so we decided to track down the dolphins - and it was not an easy task! We saw them surfacing twice and then lost them for quite a while, until we moved on a little bit and encounter the pod again. Judging by the behaviour and the presence of a calf, we believed them to be a little elusive so we resumed our sailing in search for the morning minkys. We weren't lucky with them, although we did find another big pod of around 20 harbour porpoises swimming all around the boat, sometimes only about 5 m away from us! It was a wonderful experience, since usually is pretty hard to get more than a glimpse of this shy cetaceans.
- Alberto Alejandro
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey and Hafsulan: The weather was not great for this mornings trips onboard two of our vessels. Light rain and foggy conditions made for a slightly miserable sail first thing but the fine rain soon stopped. After sailing for roughly an hour we sighted our cetacean species of the day as a minke whale slowly surfaced 200m to the side of our ship. A little patience was required by passengers, many of whom had not seen the first surface, as the whale went for a deeper dive. After a few minutes of waiting we were treated to some nice views of the whale which was routinely performing deep dives. As this whale was a little difficult to watch, we moved on to other areas. Another minke whale was spotted shortly after which was much more accomodating and swam very close infront and alongside the boat. Like before once this whale begun performing deeper dives we decided to look elsewhere. Harbour porpoises were the next cetaceans seen and were seen in a large of around ten individuals, restfully moving along in the calm sea. As the passengers were taking pictures of this group, another minke whale surfaced on our right handside which was extremely close and took everyone by surprise. The head of the whale came clear out of the water a few times, enabling people to get some amazing views.
- Mike and Babsi
Bird species seen on today's tour: northern fulmar, Icelandic gull, lesser black-backed gull, northern gannet, eider duck, black-headed gull, glaucous gull, raven, common guillemot and black-legged kittwake.