SUNDAY, 27 MARCH 2016

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey and Hafsúlan: Easter is here! This afternoon many people wanted to go whale watching with us so we took out the two biggest boats we have in our fleet of whale watching ships. The wind was strong from northeast meaning freezing cold outside, many passengers made good use of the complimentary overalls that we offer for free onboard. We headed north in shelter from the mountains at first and scouted the area close to land with many humpbacks yesterday. No whales close to shore today so the search continued towards Hvalfjörður, the whale fjord. There we heard news of a whale with another whale watching boat. On the scene we could see that it was a minke whale. Nice to see that these charming whales are returning for the summer. We could spent some time with this whale and that was needed because it was not easy to follow it and get good views of it as it constantly changed direction. With some patience both boats managed to see the whale a couple of times and Hafsúlan had it surfacing really close at one time. On the way back we could enjoy the landscape and Reykjavík from the sea and the sun was shining beautifully, Happy Easter everybody!

- Marcus and Megan

Tour at 09:00 

Report from Eldey: Gleðilegt Páska Öllsömul! (Happy Easter Everybody!) The winds were strong and cold today so everybosy made use of the free overalls and heated saloon we had on board. We hoped that the humpback whales were still in the calm sheltered area they were yesterday but after a lot of searching they were no where to be seen. Very unfortunate we traveled beside the beautiful snow-capped mountains to gain shelter from the north-easterly winds of 8 - 12m/s. brrrrrrr. Our first cetacean on this tour was a small pod or 2-3 white-beaked dolphins, we were able to see them for a few surfaces before they disappeared in the suns severe glare and were not found again. This is also one of the challenges we face with wild animals, it's not just about finding them but finding those that are not elusive and like being around boats. These dolphins were not one of these. We carried on and a crew member spotted a minke whale surface once behind the boat. We turned and tried looking for it but unfortunately it could not be found again. Wildlife is a wonderful, mysterious thing and the amount of variables that change the abundance and distribution of the food, we may never know. The bay has been a plethera of wildlife the last few weeks but this morning it seemed lifeless, execpt the seabirds, mainly fulmars that sored the strong winds. An adventure nonetheless. We offered our passengers complimentary tickets in the hope they will have more success on their next visit. 

- Megan Whittaker

Bird species seen on todays tours include: northern fulmar, "blue fulmar", black guillemot, shag, glaucous gull, Iceland gull, kittiwake, common gull, greater black-backed gull, black-headed gull, long-tailed duck and eider duck.