thursday, 1 june 2017

Tour at 17:00 Report from Eldey: What a fantastic tour! By far the best tour of the day! It was still windy and the swell high but we easily forgot about the rough sea conditions with the exciting sightings. The tour began with 8-9 white beaked dolphins, they were actively feeding under a huge flock of birds. When they stopped feeding they came towards us, swam all around so it was easy to spot their whole bodies underneath the water surface right next to our boat! We must have followed them around for at least 20 minutes, then we spotted 2 elusive minke whales. We tried following them around with little success. Two pods of harbour porpoises traveled past us, at least 6 individuals in all. The tour ended in the most amazing way, two lunge feeding minke whales, surrounded by a huge flock of feeding birds! One of the minke whales was recognized as Midi, one of our regularly seen minke whales in the bay. They surfaced sometimes right next to the boat so it was easy for everyone to get great looks! One minke whale was spotted on the way back and one other pod of harbour porpoises.

-Sigurlaug Sigurdardottir 

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: Even though the wind was supposed to calm down during the day, the sea conditions and spotting conditions certainly were not any better than this morning. There was still a lot of bird activity, though, in many large flocks, and after about an hour of sailing we saw two (probably minke whale) blows in one of this flocks of feeding birds. We tried to spot the animal and searched the area for a while but it was nowhere to be seen. We moved on and after some more time of sailing we spotted another minke whale! It was not easy to see for most people, just the ones standing in the very front saw it surfacing right in the front of us. Holding on to the boat tightly, we saw this minke whale 4 times after seeing a couple of blows but then it disappeared as well. As not many of our passengers we able to see this animal, we offered all of them our complimentary tickets, valid for another whale watching tour with us within the next two years!

- Hanna Michel

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: Weather wasn´t in its best moments when we left the harbour, but this is Iceland and we were emboldened by the Viking spirit! We sailed near Hvalfjörður, trying to get some protection from the wind and we did. We enjoyed a smooth ride with incredible views, but we were brave and we went into the middle of Faxafloi, seeking for our cetaceans. We followed few seabirds flocks in order to locate our most beloved animals but it was hard to spot any. We almost gave up when a nice pod of white-beaked dolphins popped-up. First individuals to appear were little calves, the most curious of them and just few moments later the whole pod showed up, giving us spectacular moments while they were hunting, changing direction and surfing the waves (1,5-2 m high!). It was a magical moment that we enjoyed in the company of several flocks of seabirds. The way back was nice and we were amused by the shinny sun. It was a better afternoon than expected.

-Rodrigo A. Martinez Catalan

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: To sum it up: It was a fruitless tour in rough sea conditions. The way out was okay and we searched for cetaceans in some other areas than those covered by our sister boat Eldey a bit earlier. Once our Captain thought he saw a blow and we circled that area for a few minutes without spotting anything. The amount of birds we got to see an this tour, however, was impressive. A variety of different sea birds had gathered in many spots and dove down into the water to hunt fish. It was the perfect tour for bird lovers but we did not find any cetaceans on this tour. On the way back to the harbour that was quite a bit rougher than the way out, we offered everyone a complimentary ticket to join another one of our whale watching tours for free within the next two years (also valid in Akureyri). 

- Hanna Michel

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: The wind was strong, 12-14 meters per second, and the swell was up to 1 meter high. Our sailing towards the main sighting grounds was smooth and comfortable because we traveled with the wind and the swell. Far out on the bay we spotted a huge flock of seabirds, underneath them a black dorsal fin surfaced, at least 900 meters away, only visible in binoculars in the rough sea conditions. As soon as we turned towards it we got the swell on our side and our ride became more bumpy. Only 2 minutes later, when we were still far from the mystery fin we spotted huge splashes in the opposite direction. This turned out to be a breaching minke whale! Unfortunately it was only seen from a great distance, when we got closer the minke stopped breaching and became more elusive. As this was our only sighting of the tour we decided to give all of our passengers a return ticket so they could have a second chance with us on the bay.

- Sigurlaug Sigurdardottir

Bird species seen on today's tours include: northern gannet, northern fulmar, kittiwake, lesser black-backed gull, black-headed gulls, black guillemot, manx shearwaters, arctic skua, common guillemot, Atlantic puffin, arctic tern, red-breasted merganser and eider ducks.

Status: RUNNING

We are sailing out today from the Old Harbour in Reykjavík. We're expecting easterly winds, 10-13 mps in the morning and calming down later today.