Tuesday, 09 September 2014

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We decided to sail in a different direction than we had done in the afternoon tour to escape the strong wind and big waves. We sailed east along side Reykjanes peninsula where we got shelter from the wind. The sea was calm but unfortunately the animal life was also very calm this evening. Although we never lost hope and did our best in searching for the cetaceans we never got the luck to find them in this tour. We could all enjoy the nice orange and red sky when the sun was setting down and the beautiful landscape of the reykjanes peninsula. The bird life was nice through the tour, we got a lot of sea birds flying over us and we could watch the amazing northern gannets dive down for fish every now and then. In the end of the tour all of our passengers got complimentary tickets so they can have a second chance with us to see whales.

-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: the wind was just getting stronger through the day but it was not raining as much like it did in the morning tour and the sun could peak out between the clouds every now and then. The waves were higher than they were this morning so it was a little bit more challenging to find the cetaceans. The first species of the tour was a group of 3-4 harbour porpoises that came towards us for a brief time giving us a good look at themselves. We kept on going in hope to see another species and then we spotted splashes in far distance. We got excited about the splashes that kept coming up frequently so we headed there to see what had made them. When we go a little closer we could see it was a breaching minke whale! The animal jumped up at least 40 times in front of us, we were not sure if it was always the same individual it was really hard to say but we know there were at least two minke whales in the area! Incredible tour!

-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: This morning tour started with harsh weather when we headed into the strong wind and rain coming from the south. Luckily for us the rain didn't last long and the wind was easier on us when we changed direction and went north. It was not easy at first to find animals in the bay, we sailed around in areas where we had been getting the best sightings the day before. Finally we spotted a group of 3-4 harbour porpoises but they were little elusive and hard to spot in the waves. We of course never lost hope and in the end we spotted a minke whale. The minke whale came well and frequently up so it was not hard to follow it. In the end we were running out of time and had to say good bye to this lovely whale and head back to the harbour. On the way back we saw another group of 3 harbour porpoises and in this time they came much closer so it was easier to see them.

-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Birds seen on today's tours include: Fulmars, common guillemots, northern gannets, lesser black-backed gulls, black-headed gulls, skua and glaucous gull.