Tuesday, 27 April 2010

Tour at 13:00

The weather couldn’t have got better, it was beautiful. The White-beaked Dolphins were still around from the first tour and more of them. We were able to view them for a while as there were about 5 small scattered groups located at different distances from the harbour. It took us then a while to spot the Minke Whales. We did see one early on but it disappears after the first surface. Once we got quite far offshore we seemed to be surrounded by them. Saw about 10 Minke Whales throughout the tour, some slowly surfacing 3 or 4 times so that everyone could get some great pictures. We also got to see a small pod of Harbour Porpoises in this area too which was really nice. On the way back were once again surrounded by White-beaked Dolphins; leaping, bow riding, surfing the wakes of the boat. We also got to see a lot of Puffins, Guillemots, Razorbills, Fulmars, Kittiwakes and one Gannet. Couldn’t ask for a better tour, just fantastic!

 

Tour at 9:00

The weather was absolutely super today. Sea was flat calm, sun was shining and the visibility was amazing. As soon as approached the guiding platform I could see a large pod of Harbour Porpoises. We stayed with them for only a couple of minutes before they disappeared. A couple of minutes later the captain spotted a flock of feeding Gulls, Kittiwakes, Fulmars and Puffins but no whales unfortunately. We did a big sweep of Faxafloi Bay in the hope of spotting some Minke Whales. One of the other crew members spotted a Minke about 100 meters away but it disappeared after the first surface. As we were heading back to the harbour (last 50 minutes) our luck changed. I spotted a Minke Whale about 300 meters away and it surfaced a couple more times as we got closer. Then as we got closer to the harbour we came across a pod of about 5-10 White-beaked Dolphins. Great ending to the tour ;)