Tour at 13:00
Report from Hafsúlan and Elding: We ventured out into the bay of Faxaflói in search for the elusive whales. Three boat in all (one from another company) were all out to cover a larger area of the bay for better chances. It was a south easterly wind today making the journey offshore quite pleasant, but the sail back cold when heading into the wind. The swells were also noticeable but not too bad, felt mostly when they hit the side of the boat. Elding's boat Elding (or Lighting in english) was the first to spot a pod of white-beaked dolphins, a pod of maybe 5-6 individuals. They seemed to be resting, surfacing slowly and together, not really traveling anywhere in particular. We informed the other boats and they changed course to come and have a look. Elding's boat Hafsúlan was the fitdst to arrive but the dolphins obviously did not like the extra company, they dived and disappeared. Both vessels searched for long time in the area and eventually gave up and traveled further offshore. After about 20 minutes we got informed by Hafsúlan that they found the dolphins again or maybe a different pod. We went to give it another try and they were more active now, traveling quite fast. We got some relatively close surfaces before we left them in peace to enjoy the rest of their day. A nice encounter with one maybe two pods of white-beaked dolphins on an overcast winterly day.
- Megan Whittaker
Birds seen on today's tour include: fulmars, kittiwakes, glaucous gulls, guillmots, cormorants, shags, eider ducks.