Sunday, 13 July 2014

Tour at 20:30

Report from Hafsúlan: we sailed out with one of the biggest midnight tour passenger number we have ever had and the midnight sun greeted us as we did. However, we were slightly concerned as for the past few days the midnight tour has not experienced too good sightings. However, those worries ended up being without reason as after about one hour of searching, the perfectly calm waters of the bay tonight provided us with 3-4 Minke Whales in the same area. Even if the fishfinder told us there was no fish there, there must have been something, some reason for why they were all lolling around in the same area and indeed one of them lunged forward at something at one point! Presumably it was trying to do a gulp-feed of whatever there was in the water, quite a show it was for those that managed to see it, as well as that of the great Bjarni the Magican on the delightful return journey back to Reykjavik.

- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The weather was just amazing this evening, the sun was shining, it was not windy and the sea as calm as it can get. After about 45 minutes we spotted the first cetacean, a Minke Whale. It was a little bit of a challenge to follow that Minke whale and we lost it after we had seen it twice, about 200 meters from the boat. When we gave up on that one and headed further out another Minke whale popped up just in front of the boat. We stopped there and were lucky enough to notice that there were at least three Minke whales in that area. After having a good time with these Minkes we kept on going. Twice we saw a Minke in far distance and tried to get a better look at them but it seemed like they were playing hard to get. But then it happened again that we had a Minke whale surfacing in front of the boat quite close to us. After watching that one we saw two other Minke whales and the last one was very friendly surfacing few times quite close to the boat. When we had to head back to harbour we got incredibly lucky to get the second biggest shark in the world, Basking shark, just in front of the boat. We had seen that shark before on the 10:00 o´clock tour but had not been able to find it again until now. We stopped the boat and the shark just swam slowly al around us and even went under the boat once. When it came right next to the boat we could clearly see the whole body under the water surface and it was incredible! It was probably about seven meters long and had a huge head! So over all we saw 8 Minke whales, 4 that we got a very good look at and then the amazing Basking shark :).

-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: It was calm as we headed out into a sunlit Faxaflói bay this afternoon. After around 40 minutes, two minke whales surfaced quite far away from us. We got close to one of them but then decided to head further out. After a while, a big pod of white-beaked dolphins surfaced, around 18 animals. Some of them had been seen breaching in the distance but as we got closer, they stopped breaching and approached us, dove under out boat, leapt out of the water and interacted with us very close to us. Awesome! We decided to leave the dolphins to look for a humpback whale that we did not manage to find. However, we found a third minke whale that got very close to us so that we could even hear it breath! Absolutely breathtaking!

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: off we went in totally calm waters and started with some excellent sightings of a Minke Whale before the experience really began, on a grand scale at that! Another whale-watching boat was in the area and they had not found a Minke but they had found something else and eventually we decided to 'exchange' our Minke Whale with them for their treasure, a Basking Shark! We went closer and there was a bit of fear that it would dive down as we'd get closer but those worries turned out to be for no reason. This was the coolest Basking Shark we could have asked for! We slowed down more and more as we got closer but it did not seem startled at all, approached us if anything and seemed to be just hanging out on a Sunday. But attention seeking seemed to be troubling some White-beakedDolpins nearby for suddenly they started heading right towards us, they came from the back and even passed the chilling shark so close that there are no doubt many photos with the two species together, which is something very special indeed. After about half an hour with this wonderful shark, we had a look at a Minke or two before heading back almost flying on the skies!

- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Tour at 10:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The weather was alright, it was cloudy but not raining just little windy and the sea so calm it was very easy to see far over the horizon. We had been sailing for about 40 minutes until we saw a splash coming from the water surface in front of the boat, about 2 Kilometres away. The splash was big so we kept on going in the same direction in hope to see the animal that had made that splash, then suddenly we saw a whale breach high into the air at the same spot were we saw the splash. It was amazing sight, the hole body came into the air, but it was still too far away for us to be able to identify the species. When we came to the area were the animal had breached we could not find it but luckily we only had to wait for few minutes until it jumped again, it went as high as it did for the first time and now much closer to us, so we could identify the whale as the Humpback Whale! We noticed that in the same area there was another whale of a different species, a Minke Whale. After watching the Humpback for some time we followed the Minke whale. We were lucky enough to get the animal surfacing for few times really close to the boat! After a good time with the Minke we went to see the Humpback whale again, now it was relaxed, swimming really slowly so we could sail right next to it in the same direction as the whale for few minutes. We said good bye to that Humpback whale and headed back to the harbour, on our way we came close to an island called Engey. There are many bird species that breed and stay on Engey and we got a good look at few of them. This was a wonderful ending on this packed and an awesome tour :)

-Sigurlaug SigurðardóttirTour at 09:00Report from Elding: we started almost straight away with some 6-8 White-beaked Dolphins close to the mouth of Hvalfjörður. We followed them as they travelled full speed out, presumably feeding as on and off they stopped and zig-zagged as if a chase with fish was ongoing under the surface. Then it was Minke time. The first Minke caught us by surprise by doing this somewhat wierd lunge out of the water in the typical 45°angle style that Minkes usually lunge themselves out of the water with; I had seen full breaches but never before this style; it was if the whale just couldn't be bothered to do a full breach on a Sunday morning! There were maybe 2 more Minkes in the area but then we got a call from Hafsúlan; there was a Humpback Whale close to the mouth of Hvalfjörður! We went there along with the other boats, very excited as we never get enough of Humpbacks. The fellow there was indeed a Humpback, although it took us a while to positively idendify it as such as it did not show a lot of itself and was always in a distance but anyway, a three-species tour is never bad!

- Baldur Thorvaldsson