Sunday, 29 June 2014

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: The midnight tour was wonderful this evening with great on board musicians playing on the way back with the midnight sun behind us, 7-9 minke whales that were milling, traveling and feeding all around us, both close and in the distance. We even glimpsed a breaching humpback Whale in the distance, we went to investigate but was very difficult to find it as we got closer. We waited for a while but unfortunately time was running out and we had to make our way back, listening to the musicians on the way.

-Sigurlaug

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The weather and sea conditions were still fantastic as we left for our evening tour: almost no waves or swell and a light grey cloud cover. Again, we spotted the first Minke Whale not even 30 minutes into the tour. We spent a good while with that individual and got some very nice looks. At one point we even got to see half of the fluke of this animal as it was rolling close to the surface. And all along there was another individual that surfaced here and there in the distance. Still we decided to head out a bit further in search of something more to see. Unfortunately the wind picked up a bit and the waves made it more difficult to spot the animals. Nevertheless, we saw at least 3 more individuals - none of which seemed to be in a whale watching mood though. After a while we decided to head back a bit closer to the whale fjord and managed to get some nice looks at another 2 individuals. We saw at least 7 different minke whales on this tour and enjoyed a nice calm ride back to the harbour with some music while still getting an occasional glimpse at a whale here and there...

- Linda

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: This evening tour was just as good as the others with more than 10 minke whales seen in the distance and close. One of the we even recognised at Teddy, seen every year since 2008. Passengers got a great look as they traveled. milled and feed all around us. We also encountered a pod of White-beaked Dolphins, a pod of about 6-9 animals that were following us, breaching, traveling and interacting with our boat. It was really incredible the whole afternoon, so much life in the bay.

- Sigurlaug

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We headed out into the bay to find absolutely perfect conditions for spotting whales. The sea looked like a mirror and the clouds gave it a nice light colour. And indeed, it did not take us very long to find our first Minke Whales - a pair traveling together! Quite an unusual sight, but not this afternoon... Over the course of the trip we saw at least one more pair of minkes, among lots of scattered individuals. In total, we saw over 10 different minkes! Some of them came very close to the boat, on one of them we even spotted the white band on the flipper under water! And in the middle of all the minkes we also found a pod of White-Beaked Dolphins. When we discovered them they were tail-slapping and leaping out of the water, but as we approached they got a bit calmer. But still the 7-10 animals were quite interactive at times and we could watch them swim under our boat like green flashes under the surface. All in all, it was an absolutely fantastic afternoon with great looks at two species and unbelievable weather!

- Linda

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: The weather was just amazing and the sea condition could not get any better. It did not take us a long time to spot the first two Minke Whales of the tour. One of them surfaced many times close to the boat and the longer we stayed at that area the more Minke Whales we spotted. For some time we were surrounded with minke whales. After aboud 20 minutes of a great time with the Minke Whales we headed furthe out in hope to see other species. After 20 minutes we spotted a group of 5 White-beaked Dolphins, they were really friendly. The Dolphins gave us a good look at themselves, traveling with and around us for at least 15 minutes going under the boat and jumping in front of the boat. we than came to another airea with few Minke Whales were we stopped for some time but than we had to head back to the harbour. On our way back we came across few more Minke Whales.

- Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: we had planned to search more to the south while a boat from another whale-watching company would search to the north and then we would let each other know if we would find anything good. However, our search didn't last for long as the call came from the other boat that they had found some White-beaked Dolphins close to Mount Akrafjall. We went there and found some jolly good dozen or so dolphins which almost certainly had food on their mind, based on their zig-zaging and fast movements, which indicate herding of fish. But there were also Minke Whales popping up here and there around the calm sea so once we thought the dolphins should be left alone, we turned our attention to the Minkes which, calm and easy going and at least 7-9 in number, presented us with a delightful rest of the tour along with a small pod of Harbour Porpoises seen momentarily. A most delightful Sunday morning indeed with almost perfect sea conditions and some great feeding activity only about 30 minutes from the city!

- Baldur Thorvaldsson

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