Monday, 5 August 2013

Tour at 1700

Report from Hafsulan: The wind had calmed down a bit since the last tour and the Orca (Killer Whales) were closer to Grindavik, it only took us 10 minutes before a whale watching boat from another company told us they found them. We stayed with them for over an hour as they travelled east, it was really nice to get the beautiful landscape and the town of grindavik behind the whales (see the pictures below). It was incredible when they took their last breath and disappeared. We took that as a sign for us to go and see what else is around. So we travelled in a large area to see if we can find a humpback, but no luck. It was really nice to see the orca, seabirds and landscape in the beautiful evening light. Wonderful end to the day.

- Megan Whittaker

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: We really hoped that the Orca would still be in the same area as this morning. As we headed out west our sister vessel Hafsúlan informed us that the 3 Orca are still in the area so we headed straight in that direction. After 15 minutes of sailing we spotted the same pod of 3 Killer Whales but now they traveled close together. They were heading in the direction of Grindavik so we just followed them very slowly and they showed themselves a couple of times very close to the boat, surfacing at the same time. We spent the whole 3 hours with them. It was epic!

-Lisa Hofmann

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsulan: We sailed from Grindavik in blustery weather but the sea conditions were ok, we were praying the the Orca seen on the mornings tour had changed their minds and started to head East. We crossed our finders as we headed west out of Grindavik and after 30 minutes of sailing a passenger shouted out 10 o'clock. Yes the Orca did chang their minds and it was really nice to photograph them infront of the Rekjanes lighthouse. There were 3 orca, one male and two females which were feeding and mating as they headed east.  We spent a long time with them and once the other boats came we headed back to the harbour.

- Megan Whittaker

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: We sailed out from Grindavik this morning because the sea condition there was much better. And we were so lucky that the Orca (Killer Whales) that have been there already yesterday were still there. It took us only 10 minutes of sailing before we spotted the pod of 3 Killer Whales. They were a bit scattered but we got some very close looks at them, it was fantastic. We stayed the whole tour with them and sailed back to the harbour with a huge smile on our faces.

-Lisa Hofmann

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsulan: We sailed once again from Grindavik today as the wind was still blowing strong from the North East and the landscape here provided us with some protection. We headed East to give us the most protection. However, we were unlucky with the whales this side, we did lots of seabirds though along the cliffs which was really nice. As we were not seeing whales we told our 1000 tour boat to go west, thats were they were lucky and found three Orca (Killer Whales), this was an hour from us but we got there in the end and had about 10 minutes with them before heading bach to the harbour due to our tight schedule.

- Megan Whittaker

Birds seen on todays tour includes, lesser black backed gulls, gannets, fulmars, black guillemot, common guillemots, puffins, razorbills, great skua, manx shearwater.