Friday, 27 June 2014

Tour at 20:30

Report from Hafsúlan: We went out to the midnight tour in excellent weather, it was warm, sunny, and the sea as calm as it can ever get. After about 40 minutes sailing we spotted the first Minke Whale of the evening. It was calmly surfacing at the same area and sometimes coming up in only few meters distance from the boat. After enjoying that friendly Minke Whale for around 20 minutes we kept on going further out until we saw a group of 5-7 White-Beaked Dolphins. In distance we saw them breaching with many splashes, but when we came closer to the group they slowed down and stopped breaching. But still we got a good look at them while they traveled with/around the boat. We saw few other Minke Whales on this tour but with only one that we got as close to us like the first one we spotted. The atmosphere was really cozy on the way back, the sea was flatter then ever and the sunset mate the sky purple and down in the saloon we had live music playing.

- Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We felt a bit of chilly wind as we left the harbour in search of cetaceans in the blue and golden sea. We first met 2 Minke Whales in the same area where we followed one of them for quite a while, observing it very well. Then we saw 2 pods of in total maximum 9 White-Beaked Dolphins ahead, some bow riding another vessel and others leaping and breaching high a bit further away. Splashes and bodies were easily visible in the distance but as we came closer, they approached us too, so we stayed with one pod which didn´t seem to be the same as the ones from the 13:00 tour, or at least we did not recognize any of them. We were very happy to have found interactive dolphins again, coming close. In between this sighting we could even smell a minke which we did´t pay enough attention to, as the dolphins were being curious about checking out the boat, speeding up along side and leaping. Also in this grouping we had young dolphins which were visibly smaller than the adults. A very good tour with impressive sightings where the dolphins could not have been closer.

- Carine Zimmermann

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The weather was just beautiful this afternoon and after only about 30 minutes sail we spotted two pods of 6-8 White-beaked dolphins. One of the pods were very playful and curious as they swam right up to the boat and swam with it so we could get an amazing close up look at the animals, they were so close that we could almost touch them ! We enjoyed these amazingly friendly dolphins for quite some time and when their curiosity ran out we headed to a different area. In our search we spotted 2 Minke whales, but both of the animals were hard to track and took long deep dives, but we still managed to get a good look at them. There seemed to be alot of food in the bay and we could see flocks of feeding birds spreaded around the area. The tour was very good in a nice Icelandic summer weather, but we think that the dolphins were definately the highlight of the tour!- Freydís Ósk

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Warm temperature and sunshine welcomed us, so that the overalls were not that much needed on this tour. We sailed out into the calm bay where we soon found two pods of White-Beaked Dolphins which have been splashing, bowriding, surfing our waves, leaping and something which looked liked "human watching", as they came to check out every boat which newly came into the observation zone. The people at the bow could look into the eye of a dolphin which was observing us as we observed them. There were around 7-11 individuals, some of them younger ones. One, out of 4 curious individuals - which often came very close to the boats - had a white scarring over its left shoulder. After a while we left the dolphins to find 2 Minke Whales which we could see well and our way back we came once more across the same playful dolphins as before, being sure there were the same recognizing the scarred one. We were looking at all the characteristic features as their white and black body pattern was nicely visible under and out of water, their short white beaks, their bulky bodies, their big sickle shaped individually formed dorsal fins and so on. A very nice encounter indeed!

- Carine Zimmermann

Tour at 10:00

Report from Skrúður: The sea conditions were great with calm and nice weather. We had not been sailing for a long time until we saw the first cetacean, a Minke Whale. This Minke whale gave us a nice look at itself, it stayed at the same area for at least 20 minutes, resurfacing often close to the boat few times. We left this Minke Whale after another boat from Elding came to enjoy his company. We only sailed for about 25 minutes until we saw another Minke Whale. That Minke Whale also gave us a good look at itself for around 15 minutes. But the day got only better, we came to an area with a lot of White Beaked Dolphins. We had few groups of Dolphins at that airea, we saw at least 35 individuals and they traveld slowly with us for some time. Overall this was a great tour.

- Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: What a difference from yesterday, very little wind, few clouds, blue calm sea and sunshine! Like this the spotting conditions were much nicer. We found the first of 3 Minke Whales which we observed properly, and there were no difficulties to find them again when they went for a dive and we were able to have several looks at them. One of them we recognized as "Teddy". We also got the chance to make out one of these whales with our noses. Smelling a stinky-minke is definitely not the best perfume but still a highlight as experiences with several senses go deeper and last longer. Having spent much time out there we were hoping to find some dolphins on the way back, but as they didn´t cross our way and we already prolonged our tour we had to head back and all in all there were 4-6 minkes appearing in Faxaflói.

- Carine Zimmermann

Birds seen on today's tours include: Eider ducks, northern gannets, puffins, fulmars, kittiwakes, arctic skuas, pomarine skuas, lesser black-backed gulls, storm petrel, arctic terns and common guillemots.