Sunday 1 March 2015

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan:  We went back out in Grindavík this afternoon. This time we sailed further west than in the morning tour. We had been sailing for at least one hour before we spotted a tall black dorsal fin about 300 meters away. It took us only a second to realize there were orcas around us!! We saw at least 3 pods, in total 10-11 individuals!! These animals are so incredible beautiful that everyone gasped when we got so lucky to have them closer to the boat. Sometimes they were all around us. The most excited moment was when four orcas went under the boat and all surfaced right next to us so we were able to hear their breaths.  It most difficult part was the end of the tour when we had to sail back into the swells to get back to Grindavík.  

Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan:   We sailed out from Grindavík again because we have been lucky there lately seeing whales that are feeding on the capelin that is in the area for spawning. It was a really cold day so most of our passengers made use of our complimentary overalls. We first sailed west because we saw that many fishing boats were in that area and of course we want to be looking for the whales were the food conditions are the best. We didn’t find any signs of cetaceans until we had already sailed back east where we saw a blow around 900 meters away. It took a while to get closer because we had to sail into the swells. We finally got closer and saw it was a humpback whale! We had it for a while around but it was spending a long time underwater between surfacing so it was hard to get a good look at it. Because we never got a good look at it we decided to offer our passengers complimentary tickets so they can have a second chance with us to see the whales.

Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Birds seen on today's tour: northern gannet, black-backed gull, common guillemot, razorbill, northern fulmar, eider duck, european shag, black-legged kittiwake.