Sunday, 01 June 2014

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We went out under a rather overcast skye but it took quite some effort to locate what this tour gave us. First one Minke Whale appeared just once, we waited for it for a while but it did not resurface despite not arching itself as they usually do before a deep dive. Another Minke appeared a while later but did not show itself much better. What saved the tour was the third Minke Whale, which suddenly appeared as we had started making our way towards Reykjavik. It surfaced and exhaled strongly but calmly in more or less the same place a few times before disappearing like its mates. And as on the earlier tour, Harbor Porpoises popped up from time to time but no pods, just odd ones here and there.

- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding II: The rain from the morning was much less this afternoon, and the sea conditions were still very good. It was a very comfortable sail as we sailed out from Reykjavík and into Faxaflói to search for more whales. We headed to the area where we had been successful in the morning and when we were there we succeeded in finding some Harbour Porpoises. They were being elusive though and we only got to see them a few times before they dived down and disappeared. This happened a few more times, we would find a small pod of porpoises that wouldn´t stay at the surface for very long. Each pod was just 2-3 individuals big so in total we saw around 8-9 porpoises. There were many whale watching boats in the area and we all covered a large part of the bay, but there wasn´t much to see and as scanned as much of the bay as we could turning back to Reykjavík. As we only saw porpoises we gave out complimentary tickets at the end of the tour so everyone could try again.

- Jack Ball

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We went straight to the same area as on the 09:00 tour. The first Minke Whale that appeared only did so twice but then we had another one towards the end of the tour that showed itself a bit better, even if we wish there had been fewer boats around it. We idendified it as 'Flikr' which has been seen here every summer since 2009. Other than that, it was only Harbor Porpoises, of which singles and duos popped up several times during the tour.

- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding II: This was quite a wet morning that we were sailing in, but that never bothers the whales so that means it never bothers us! The sailing conditions were great too, low wind and swell would make this a comfortable morning. It turned out the species today were definitely in a whale watching mood too! We got a great look at two species on this trip, both the Minke Whale and the White-Beaked Dolphin! We had heard from the 09:00 tour about a good area so we sailed in that direction and as we did out of nowhere a minke whale appeared in front of the boat! This minke didn´t stay around for long but it was only the beginning, we headed on and found a great pod of 5 dolphins. They were leaping, swimming under and around the boat, and giving everyone a great look at their black and white striped body. We eventually moved on and found more minke whales, there were two that were coming very close to the boat. One of these was a good friend of Elding, Peanut! We´ve seen this minke every year since 2007 and have been seeing it on many occasions this year already! In total we spotted 4-5 minkes with 2 giving us a great look. To see just one of these species this well would have been great but to see both is excellent eye candy and perfect for getting fantastic pictures!

- Jack Ball

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out into Faxaflói this morning in not the nicest of weathers. It was raining hard and we could not make out much of the landscape through the fog. It took us about 40-50 minutes to get out into the area were we saw at least 4-6 Minke whales and two pods of white-beaked dolphins, 2-3 individuals in the first group and 4-6 in the second. two pods of harbour porpoises showed up too but they were more elusive, with only 2-3 animals in each group they vanished as soon as they were spotted. One of the minke whales turned out to be Peanut, a whale we have seen every year since 2007. All in all, a great tour but wished the weather could have been nicer.

-Megan Whittaker

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