After a reasonable night's sleep, I was ready for a second full day at sea as we sailed from the Shetland Islands to Jan Mayen Island. I spent a lot of the day on the deck and it proved worthwhile for Cetaceans. The first species seen was a Northern Bottlenose Whale, but frustratingly I didn't manage to get any photos of it.
The next Cetaceans seen were a couple of Humpback Whales, which we thought was a female with a calf.
Towards the end of lunch there was a broadcast that the Plancius was stopping as one of the expedition staff had seen a Fin Whale during their bridge watch. I had just finished eating and so it was time to head back up to the bridge wings.
We saw few Bird species during the day. Virtually, all the Birds I saw were Fulmars, but there was also a Long-tailed Skua, four Kittiwakes and the first two Brunnich's Guillemots. I expected to see lots of the latter species during the trip, however, it was good to see the first ones, especially as the only one I had previously seen was literally on its last legs and two days later, it was found dead in Anstruther harbour, on the Scottish East Coast.
Later in the day, I saw another couple of Humpback Whales. In the early evening, I saw a brief blow, but never saw the Whale. Looking at photos that others took, it was another Fin Whale. I decided to knock the watch on head at 21:30 and get an early night. We were due to have a few hours on the following morning as we approached Jan Mayen Island and I was hoping this would be more productive for Cetaceans. I will cover this final approach in the next Blog Post.