Sunday, 17 August 2014

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed onto a sunlit Faxaflói bay this afternoon and were greeted by a feeding minke whale quite early on in the tour. It was changing its speed and direction a lot and unfortunately, it did not really come up that frequently, so we decided to leave it after a while and head further. This decision, we did not have to regret because quite soon after, we found two pods of white-beaked dolphins, a small one with around 4 individuals, and a bigger on with around 8. They were really playful, breaching and leaping out of the water, some of them even approaching us and diving underneath the boat. Breathtaking! After we left the dolphins, we found one more minke whale. This minke was a lot more fun than the first one and came up frequently so we managed to get some great looks at it (and photos!). On the way back, the sailing was smooth and the sun honored us with its presence.

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The wind had changed direction and was now blowing from the west, but also lost in intensity. Soon after reaching the area, where we have been most successful in sighting whales, we encountered a pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins. Initially, they kept their distance, but soon engaged with the boat and came as close as 5 meters from it. Our passengers were granted a look at their white-greyish bellies and could even follow them beneath the surface of the water. After we had left the dolphins, a minke whale was detected by its large blow. At first the whale was sneaky and elusive, but soon offered our passengers really nice looks upon its back and dorsal fin. However, at some point we lost the individual. Only minutes after another minke whale came into sight and we followed this individual until we had to head for the harbour.

-Dominik Schmid

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: This afternoon, the winds were turning and had become more westerly than this morning. We started with a minke whale that was feeding quite close to the shore. We did not spend too much time with it since it was not coming up that frequently but instead, we headed further out to the areas where we had seen the minke whales this morning. Indeed, we found more minkes there as they were apparently feeding, changing their speed and direction a lot. Some of them came quite close and all in all, there were around 4 to 5 of them. Very good. Then, on the way back, we stopped for some 3 or 4 white-beaked dolphins for a while before heading back to the harbour in the sunshine. Great afternoon!

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: Although the wind was coming strongly from the north, the bay was calm and the sun was shining brightly. The tour was dominated by two minke whales, which we encountered only 30 minutes out into the bay. Both whales were surfacing next to each other almost synchronously. However, one of the two seemed to bit a big larger than the other. Nevertheless, their behaviour was very similar: forceful surfaces and blows. Twice, the larger one also pierced through the waves head high up in the air and once he rolled on the side, giving us a look at its pectoral flipper. It seemed both whales were engaged in feeding, although the fish finder on board clearly stated that only few fish were in the area. We stayed with both whales most of the tour and had a fantastic time on this sunny, but cold morning.

-Dominik Schmid

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: It was quite windy as we headed out on the bay this morning. We started off with a small pod of about 4 white-beaked dolphins that seemed to be feeding. They surfaced frequently and came close to the boat, some of them even diving underneath us! After the dolphins disappeared, we left for another area, where we found lots of feeding sea birds. After a while, minke whales started surfacing all around us. There were around 5 of them but two of them seemed to be buddies, as they were always surfacing at the same time right next to each others. You could see their blows from far away and they came up very frequently. On the way back, we had the wind from behind and enjoyed the sunshine and the crisp view we had on the Snæfellsjökull glacier.

-Arnór Tumi

Birds seen on today's tours include: fulmars, lesser black-backed gulls, northern gannets, common guillemots, kittiwakes, puffins, arctic skuas, great skuas, cormorants and storm petrels