Tour at 13:00
Report from Hafsulan: We were warned about the challenging conditions the sea conditions after the adventure of this morning, so overalls and sea-sickness pills were promptly offered to everybody at the beginning of the trip. The swell decreased compared to this morning, but still, despite our preparation, we were still in for quite a ride ! But as the tour unfolded the wind weakened and the sun came out, so the biting cold turned into a more tolerable temperatures. And under the sun we could encounter a scattered pod of a dozen of white-beaked dolphins in a feeding frenzy. They were surfacing extremely fast chasing after the food so it was hard to keep track of them, but it was fascinating to be in the middle of all this activity ! Some of them even went as far as jumping out of the water and slamming their body in the sea surface or lightly leaping ! It was also interesting to see the birds hovering above the dolphins and trying to snatch opportunistically some leftovers. We enjoyed the dolphins for a while before heading further out and exploring more in the south of the bay, but the second half of the trip consisted in a patient scanning of the bay. Nonetheless sea, sun and dolphins made for a worthwhile afternoon.
- Guillaume Calcagni
Tour at 09:00
Report from Hafsulan: The tour begun with a cold wind and long swells that made for a bumpy cold morning at sea. After crashing our way through the waves for quite some time, the greater abundance of birds appeared. Diving birds were spotted and after searching the area no fins breaking the surface of the water could be seen and the birds quickly dissipated. We received a radio call of dolphins closer to Reykjavik than our current location and started to journey back, this time with the wind and waves behind us making for a smoother ride. As we drew closer, feeding birds highlighted the white-beaked dolphins position. Initially they were very elusive surfacing once or twice and disappearing for some time, surfacing in a new location. They required some patience before we started to get some great views. As we slowly sailed by, the dolphins very restfully swam slightly ahead totally unfazed by our presence. They spent some time restfully swimming before we saw an individual continuously breach from the water, creating large splashes which had the passengers amazed. The relaxed behaviour once again began as we ran out of time and made our way back to the harbour.
- Mike Smith
Species of seabirds seen on today's tour include: northern gannet, eider duck, herring gull, great black-backed gull & northern fulmar
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. There will me some movement on the boat this morning but if you are sensitive to motion sickness we offer preventative tablets in the ticket office, free of charge!
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