Sunday, 27 July 2014

Tour at 20:30

Report from Hafsúlan: The clouds were dark as we headed out tonight and after searching for over a hour we spotted 1 Minke whale that surfaced very close to the boat. Unfortunately the waves were getting higher and the minke whale was very hard to follow, so it disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared. We kept on searching but unfortunately nothing was seen. As we headed back to the harbour the musicians, Bjarni and Þorgils, played some nice music for us. Because of the lack of sightings we offered all of our passengers complementary tickets that makes them able to come back with us on a whale watching tour, for free, in the next two years. Hopefully we will see them again and they will have better luck.- Freydís Ósk

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The wind had picked up quite a bit before we left for our evening tour and created sighting conditions more difficult than earlier in the day. Nevertheless we found a Minke Whale not too far out of the harbour. Unfortunately, this animal turned out to be quite shy and elusive. After trying to follow it for a while we decided to head further out in search of another individual or a different species. It took quite a bit of patience to sail around in the area where we had seen lots of life earlier, finding nothing but wind and waves this evening. But then an encounter with two pods of White-Beaked Dolphins made up for the long search. In total there must have been around 7-10 animals around us. Sometimes quite difficult to follow, with the two groups moving quite quickly. 3-4 dolphins came right up to our boat multiple times and raced underneath it - giving us great looks at them as their bodies shimmered through the water. On the way home we were greeted by some rain as we entered the harbour, but the dolphins had already made up for the Icelandic weather...

- Linda

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The weather this afternoon was a bit more windy but conditions were still good as we headed out again. Close to the harbour we got reports of a minke whale in our area and searched the area well before heading further out. Once further out we spotted something in the distance and soon found our first Minke whale of the tour. We saw this individual surface in front of us a few times but like the minke this morning it was quite elusive and soon headed off elsewhere. We then headed further out and searched north towards Akranes. Much like the 10‘o clock tour this morning we spotted white-beaked dolphins just as we were about to turn back. These individuals were really fun to watch, we got to see one breach out of the water and observed that there was a calf travelling with the pod. An excellent ending before we headed back to Reykjavík.

-Ívar Elí

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The water was like a mirror and the slight cloud cover made the light conditions ideal for whale watching this afternoon. Only 20 minutes out into the Faxa Bay we spotted our first Minke Whale. We passed the individual quite quickly before heading out further into the bay in expectance of more whales. Our hopes were not disappointed when a pot of dolphins appeared just in front of the vessel. These 7-10 White-beaked Dolphins were chasing and surfing in the waves, despite keeping their distance towards the boat. Soon after we saw another Minke Whale and followed that individual around, before two other Minke Whales surfaced in the distance. One of them turned out to be Humpie, a frequent visitor over the last couple of days. Both whales were coming to the surface together and often, before we left them at peace. A small group (3-5) of Harbour Porpoises and 2 more Minke Whales were seen before we returned to the harbour.

-Dominik Schmid

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: This morning conditions were good as we set sail from Reykjavik harbour out onto Faxa bay. As we got further out the wind picked up a bit but did not affect sighting conditions all that much. We reached the main whale watching area and soon got word of a cetacean in the area. Turning to look for the animal we quickly spotted a minke whale! This individual was quite elusive however and we didn‘t get a very good look at it. Our search continued on for a while and we were almost at the point where we had to turn back when we spotted a pod of White-beaked dolphins, these animals got very close to our boat and we were able to observe them as they surfaced only twenty metres away from the boat! A very good ending to this tour.

-Ívar Elí

Tour at 09:00Report from Hafsúlan: we spotted the first Minke Whale in the bay's clear and calm water soon after departure but it was a hard one to follow as it spent a lot of time underwater so we left it after a little while and headed further out. We passed a few Harbour Porpoises but left them to their thing as we got the report from another whale-watching vessel that it had 5-6 Minke Whales around them. As we got closer, we could not believe our eyes. The sky around the boat was swarming with seabirds, as was the sea. Gannets were diving with splashes and also circling above. The swarm was made up by most of the seabird species we see here on a regular basis. And amidst the party was what our passengers had come to see, Minkes feeding as if it would be their  last meal. They took the sandeel mass that was present in the bay with storm, we saw several major and minor lunge-feeding leaps, close-ups with the animals turning towards us, the blows were loud and clear and surfacing activity was incredible at times. The birds together with the whales formed an incredible scenario!- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Birds seen on todays tour include: Atlantic Puffin, Northern Fulmar, Northern Gannet, Manx Shearwater, Arctic Skua, Arctic Tern, Common Guillemot,Kittiwake, Black-Backed Gull.