Thursday, 23 April 2015

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We went out from Grindavík in the afternoon. We don't go out from this harbour as often as we wish because the area is less sheltered from the wind resulting in rough sea conditions. However, the sea was suitable today and after only 30 minutes we encountered two male orcas or killer whales. The sun was still shining and we had a great time watching them traveling parallel to our boat. After about half an hour we decided to go to another area to find other cetacean species. We didn't spot any other cetaceans on this tour but still enjoyed the  sailing in nice weather after a great time with the orcas. The visibility was so good that we could even see the famous volcano Eyjafjallajökull from our boat before heading back to the harbour of Grindavík. 

-Hanna Michel

Tour at 09:00

Report from Elding: We went out from Reykjavík this morning. The weather was sunny and we were even able to see the Snæfellsnes peninsula which is invisible on cloudy days. However, the sea conditions were quite rough as we made our way into Faxafói. After 1,5 hours we were rewarded with two (maybe even three) minke whales. On of them was identified as "Humpie" which we have seen in Iceland every summer since 2011. We spent about half an hour watching the minke whales before we started heading back to Reykjavík. The sailing on the way back was a lot smoother than in the beginning of the tour. 

Birds seen on today's tour: black-legged kittiwake, northern fulmars, northern gannets, lesser black-backed gulls, glaucous gull, eider ducks, puffin.