Sunday, 20 July 2014

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: The sky was fairly cloudy above us but far in the west we could see clear sky where luckily this was where the sun was about to set. Plus fantastic sea conditions made for a great tour even without any whales. But of course we had some great sightings this fine evening! Our first sign of life was the distinct smell of a Minke Whale, this alerted us to its presence and sure enough it appeared just 100m away. We stayed with the whale for a short while but then heard reports of a large group of White-Beaked Dolphins further offshore. This was very enticing so we felt we had to go see these dolphins, and it was a good job we did as this was a pod of 15-18 dolphins spread over a large area around us. At times it felt like we were surrounded by the dolphins especially as they were very calm and were very happy to swim under and around our boat. Now imagine these sightings with the ever-changing colours of the sky as the sun set over the volcano Snæfellsjökull, at the start the sky was orange but by the end it was blood red. And now add those two amazing things to a live music session as we sailed back! Almost too much to handle on this tour! A really fantastic night.

- Jack Ball

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out on a sunny and calm Faxaflói bay. After around 50 minutes, we found the first minke whale! It was spending a lot of time underwater and not surfacing very frequently so we decided to leave it to head further out. Shortly after, another minke whale was found. This time around, it was spending more time at the surface, showing off quite well and breathing heavily so that we could hear it. After that, we headed west and found a pod of white-beaked dolphins! They were swimming quite fast south and combined with another pod of dolphins. All in all there were around 15 of them. After the dolphins started heading away from us, we gave them a break and found the third minke whale. It came up quite frequently but in the end, we ran out of time and had to head back to the harbour.

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: It only took us about 30 minutes to spot the first cetaceans of the tour, 3 Minke whales that surfaced slowly. Like earlier they kept their distance but will still managed to get a good look at them. After some time we decided to head further out towards splashes seen in the distance. As we got closer we saw that the animals making the splashes were around 40-60 White-beaked dolphins that seemed to be feeding. There must have been around 5-7 pods there, surfacing all around us and sometimes very close. After we spent a good amount of time with the dolphins we headed a little bit further out where we spotted another minke whale. This individual surfaced very close to the boat so we were able to get a good look at the animal and even hear it's blow. We headed back after another amazing tour in Faxaflói bay.- Freydís Ósk

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The sea was calm as a mirror as we left this afternoon. It was warm and visibility good and after only 40 minutes, the first minke whale was seen surfacing about 200 meters from us. It turned out to be quite shy but as we headed further out another minke whale was found and that one was showing off much better. After a while, we decided to head further out. We found two pods of white-beaked dolphins that were coming very close to our boat, leaping and breaching out of the water. Then we saw more and more dolphins in the distance. As we approached them, they were breaching many at a time, producing big splashes! It turned out to be a huge pod of dolphins that was spread out over a big area. There must have been at least 40 dolphins all in all. On the way back, we found two more minke whales that were both showing off very well. Great afternoon in awesome weather!

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: The weather was calm and we had perfectly visibility this morning. Very soon we spotted about 2-4 Harbour porpoises that seemed to be feeding close to the harbour. We slowed down the boat and managed to get a few looks at them before they disappeared. As we kept on searching we spotted at least 2 Minke whales out of around 4-6 minke's that we saw in this tour. The Minke's all seemed to be quite elusive and kept their distance from the boat, but still they surfaced calmly so we got a good look at them. As we headed further out we saw many splashes close to the horizone, as we got closer we saw that these were White-beaked dolphins that were breaching! As we scanned the area we saw that there were multiply pods of dolphins there, around 80-100 animals ! They started playing around the boat, surfacing right next to us, playing in the waves, breaching and swimming with us for a good amount of time. We could enjoy the playful dolphins for a very long time as they seemed to follow us in the direction towards the harbour. As we got closer to Reykjavík the dolphins changed direction but only a few minutes passed until we spotted at least 2 more Minke whales. We ended the tour with the minke's as our time was running out and sailed back to the harbour. What a great tour with three species. The dolphins definately highlighted the tour, it's always amazing when these beautiful animals decide to interact with the boat!- Freydís Ósk

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We left the harbour under an overcast sky this morning and soon found a minke whale. It turned out to be quite elusive as it was not surfacing a lot and staying underwater for long periods of time. We decided to leave it and shortly after found two more minkes, both of whom were a lot more fun that the first one, coming close to us and showing off properly. When we had spent a decent amount of time with these, we went even futher and found the fourth minke whale. It was bigger than the others and close to it there was a pod of white-beaked dolphins. Two dolphins approached us while the rest of them kept a distance. All in all there were around 7 dolphins. On the way back, the sun came out and we enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the Faxaflói bay. Nice!

-Arnór Tumi

Birds seen on todays tours include: Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Black-baked Gulls, Guillemots, Razorbills, Northern Gannets, Manx Shearwaters, Atlantic Puffins, Arctic terns, Arctic Skuas, Great Skuas & Eider-ducks