Sunday, 06 July 2014

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: As we headed out into the bay for our midnight tour it was still fairly windy and the lighting conditions made it difficult to spot animals in the water. Nevertheless, some of our very talented spotters found a pod of White-Beaked Dolphins. They would have been extremely difficult to spot had they not been leaping and breaching out of the water! As we moved closer their behaviour got a bit more calm, but they still showed us a good part of their bodies as they travelled through the waves. At one point a part of this fairly large pod (at least 7-10 individuals) passed right underneath our bow and we could follow the light parts of their bodies through the water surface. After leaving the dolphins behind we moved on in search of something larger - but were unfortunately not successful. But since the dolphins as well as our musicians had given us a great show we still returned to the harbour contented...

- Linda

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The winds had calmed down and conditions were better this evening than they had been in the afternoon. We started by going north, almost up to Hvalfjörður and followed the coastline up to Akranes. We enjoyed a very good view of mount Akrafjall on our way there and spotted some flocks of birds just off the coast of Akranes. Theses flocks looked very promising and we headed towards them expectantly. Just as we had hoped a Minke whale surfaced close to one of the flocks. This individual was very elusive however and after one look at us, turned tail and swam away. We looked for it a little bit longer and the decided to head further south. We had just turned south when another minke was spotted. This one was much more sociable and surfaced quite often around us. We got a very good look at it from different angles and it even surfaced quite close to our front. By this point the weather had also calmed down even more, making the encounter that much more enjoyable. Before we headed back to land we had one more brief encounter with a minke, a nice finishing touch to a good tour.

-Ívar Elí

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: It had turned more rainy and windy when we left Reykjavík this afternoon. We sailed through many areas but did not have much success. At one point, a minke whale was spotted but it only surfaced once and then vanished. That was it. Not much bird life was seen and not much was going on. So we ended up giving our passengers complimentary tickets after a long and hard search. Better luck next time!

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out this morning with some wind coming in from the northwest but overall conditions were okay. Today we had to sail about nine miles out to sea hoping to find signs of life. It started with flocks of feeding arctic terns and puffins. WE sailed from one flock to the next, hoping whales would be attracted to the food being eaten by the birds. It took a bit of searching but then a splash was spotted and soon its owner emerged, a Minke whale! This individual was quite elusive though and we lost track of him relatively quickly. Undaunted we continued our search further out into the bay observing the bird life around us, including skuas attacking the smaller arctic terns. We were almost twelve miles out when we found a second minke. This individual surfaced right next to the boat, not even 10 metres away! It then proceeded to surface a few times close to our left hand side, giving us a very good look at it. Not long afterwards we spotted our third minke and then we had to head back to Reykjavík after a good tour.

-Ívar Elí

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: This morning, the weather was nicer than expected. It stayed dry and the sun was even shining. It took us a good while to find the first minke whale. It came up a few times before we lost it but it was followed by another one right away. That one seemed to be travelling westwards at quite a speed. We stayed with it for a while and at one point, it came up so close that we could hear it exhale out of its huge blowhole! Amazing. After we left the second minke whale, we found the third one. It was not surfacing frequently but came up a few times so that we got a nice look at it. So on this tour we had three minke whales, we would have hoped for more sightings but the sightings that we did get were good.

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The wind calmed down extremely compared to yesterday and there was little swell. So we had fairly nice conditions, looking back at some quite stormy days. The sky cleared up during the tour and went from mostly cloudy to slightly cloudy and we saw more and more blue sky and sunshine. Enjoying that fact it was still a challenge to find some whales today. During the excursion we saw several times a bigger blow far away but we never got the chance to find the producer of it. Quite late in the tour we managed to observe up to 3 Minke Whales. The first was quite elusive and difficult to watch but we went on to another place where two of them were found. With one of them we were lucky and had a good look at it. In the end, people seemed to be pleased to have been rewarded for their patience.

- Carine Zimmermann

Birds seen on todays tour include: Northern gannets, northern fulmars, kittiwakes, arctic terns, arctic skuas, great skua, common guillemots, lesser black backed gulls, herring gulls, atlantic puffins.