Friday, 01 August 2014

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The northerly winds had picked up as we sailed out of the harbour this afternoon. After around 45 minutes into the tour, a big splash was seen in front of the boat. It must have been from a minke whale or a humpback whale but we did not get to see it again. So we headed further out and looked for a long time without finding anything of interest. All of a sudden, a passenger jumped up claiming to have seen something and lo and behold, there was a minke whale there. It surfaced three times quite close to us but unfortunately not often enough so that we could really get a satisfying look at it. On the way back, nothing but a single potential blow was spotted in the distance so in the end, we decided to give out complimentary tickets. Better luck next time!

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: Once again the weather was perfect, a bit chilly on the way out  when we were heading into the wind. We travelled towards the area we were successful from this morning and once again the dolphins were the stars of this tour. We encountered 2 pods of white-beaked dolphins, first pod of about 4-6 were very difficult. Obviously in a grumpy mood so after a few minutes we left them in peace. The second pod of maybe 6-8 animals were difficult at first, we almost left them too, but suddenly their behaviour changed, two bold juvenile dolphins came over and started playing around the boat, others leaping a bit further away. Always need a bit of patience. We did see a minke whale too but only twice by the guide, not many passengers got to see it. We waited and waited but no sign of the minke again. We had a lovely journey home in the wonderful weather.

- Megan Whittaker

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The days fantastic weather didn´t stop on a packed boat this afternoon, we were still blessed with sunshine and calm seas. The normal amount of time is takes to spot an animal is 45 minutes and after exactly 45 minutes we had our first sighting, white-Beaked Dolphins. This was a pod of 5 individuals that were slowly moving though the area, though they weren´t jumping or leaping their slow movement in the sunlight was still a great sight. After some time we moved on in order to find something larger, and we end up finding 4 larger things! They were all minke whales, our most common species in the bay. The first was an elusive one that didn´t show itself very often, the second was the best as it was very visible swimming slowly close to the boat acting very relaxed around us. The third and fourth were actually a pair that were feeding together, we had seen a large group of birds feeding and decided to investigate. It was great to see a pair together surrounded by a huge flock of gulls and puffins. And our sail back would give us all a chance to sunbathe and get a real Icelandic tan.

- Jack Ball

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: The weather was the best it could be today, no wind, blue skies, warm sun on our face (don't forget the sun screen) and wildlife was not to bad either. Minke whales are still proving to be quite difficult and even though we knew there were whales in the area, told to us by the other whale watching vessels,  we unfortunately didn't see one on this tour. However, we did see 4 different pods of white-beaked dolphins and these definitely made up for the lack of whales. The first pod we saw, pod of 7-9 individuals and the others where maybe 3-5 in each, were challenging to begin with but suddenly their behaviour changed, they started to play under and around the boat, mothers and calves surfacing together. Behaviours such as, leaping, head slapping, sharking were seen linked to them feeding. Birds got involved too including; fulmars, seagulls and manx shearwaters. On our search for the whales we spotted 2 pods of harbour porpoises which, were shy so we didn't spend long with these. A big bonus for the tour was a harbour seal that graced us with his presence. In the end, no whales but lots of other wonderful wildlife and perfect weather.

- Megan Whittaker

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out onto a very calm and bright Faxaflói bay this morning. After only around 20 minutes, we spotted the first pod of white-beaked dolphins. There were around 4 or 5 of them together and we got some very nice looks. After we left the dolphins, we spotted a minke whale right away. There turned out to be 3 minke whales in this area quite close to the shore. They were keeping quite a distance but we still managed to get some nice looks at them as the sun glared of their shiny black backs. After we had headed further out on the bay, we spotted two more pods of dolphins, around 5 to 6 animals each. One of them kept a distance to us but the other one approached us and showed off nicely. Beautiful day on the bay this morning!

-Arnór Tumi

Birds seen on today's tours include: Northern gannets, puffins, lesser black-backed gulls, kittiwakes, eider ducks, manx shearwaters and fulmars