Thursday, 4 July 2013

Tour at 20:30:

Report from Elding: The wind had gone down and the raining had stopped as we headed out for our midnight tour. We sailed for a very long time before spotting a Minke Whale. It was very elusive, did not come high out of the water. We only saw it a couple of times before it disappeared. We then found another Minke Whale but the same thing happened, surfaced a couple of times, not showing itself very much, and then vanishing. Soon we had to turn back to the harbour because we were running out of time. But on our way back we finally found a Minke Whale that surfaced many times close to the boat. Then as we were getting even closer to land we see a big pod, probably 30-40 White-beaked Dolphins jumping all around us. We watched them for a while, they were jumping high, doing flips, swimming under the boat and more. Such a magnificent sight with the sunset in the background. Of course we got a little bit late to the harbour but it is so hard to say goodbye to such a beautiful view.

-Aldís Erna Pálsdóttir

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The weather was a bit chilly with a slight drizzle, but our passengers were more than prepared for it with the on board overalls that we provided for them. We headed out into the bay and stopped at Akurey first and were surprised to see several Puffins flying on by. We then headed out to sea in the direction of where we had been seeing other whales today. We searched for quite along time and our passengers were more than happy to help us look for these lovely animals, however we did not seem to have very much luck. Our engineer finally spotted a Minke Whale, but it vanished before we could get a good look at it. We continued on our way towards Akrafjall mountain when all of the sudden about 200 meters away from us we could see White-Beaked Dolphins jumping up and out of the water. We got closer to them and got to see their lovely white beaks and striped sides as the came fairly close to the boat. We decided to continue our search once more before heading back to the harbour and found more white-beaked dolphins. These were very playful animals jumping out of the water, spinning and coming very close to our boat. It was a lovely ending to a rainy but exciting tour.

-Taylor Theódór

Tour at 14:00:

Report from Elding: The wind had gotten a bit stronger but still a very nice day. We started our tour in Akurey and then headed out in search of whales. As we were heading out we spotted a Minke Whale that surfaced three times and then vanished. As we got further out we spotted two other Minke Whales but like the first one they disappeared very soon. We searched a very big area but unfortunetaly we didn't find anything else. We gave all our passengers complimentary tickets which are good for another tour with us for the next two years.

-Aldís Erna Pálsdóttir

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We headed out in a nice weather and decided to sail straight to the area where we have been seeing a lot of animals. We did have a lot of luck there since we saw about 7-9 Minke Whales as they surfaced around us and 2 of them came up circa 5 – 10 meters from our boat! We sailed around the area for a while and enjoyed the sighting of the Minke. On our way back we spotted a group of feeding Arctic Terns and we could see a dark spot in the ocean because of all the fish there. We stopped to check it out and saw a Minke Whale surface feeding and it even rolled and put it’s flipper up. We sailed back to the harbor and visited Akurey, one of the Puffin Islands on our way there after a great tour !

-Freydís Ósk Hjörvarsdóttir

Tour at 10:00:

Report from Elding: We headed out in beautiful weather, sun shining and calm sea. We had only been sailing for a little while when we saw huge splashes in the distance. As we got closer we could see it was a Humpback Whale both breaching and slamming its tail against the surface. But then all of a sudden it stopped and we didn't see it surface again. We then decided to head further out and after about half an hour we spotted another humpback Whale. This one was surfacing very slowly and didn't seem to go down for a deep dive, it could have been sleeping. We watched this whale for the rest of the tour and saw it surface often, swimming right beneath the surface and even raising its tail a few times. It didn't seem to be slapping it as it does to show aggression but rather just rolling around in the surface. While watching it we also saw one Minke Whale that was swimming by. It surfaced three times but we decided to stay with the humpback. On our way back we stopped in Akurey. A couple of our passengers, Michelle and Paul Collister-Bartlett, from Scotland got some beautiful pictures of the humpback and even a video which you can see here below.

-Aldís Erna Pálsdóttir

Tour at 9:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We headed out to sea as the sun started to peak out from behind the clouds. The sea was calm and there was a nice warm breeze. We headed towards the area that we have been seeing humpback whales lately and we soon found ourselves among various amounts of birds feeding. Lesser Black-Backed Gulls, Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Arctic Terns and Puffins were all enjoying a feast on the top of the sea. Not long after we saw our first Humpback Whale appear in front of the boat about 200 meters away!! We continued toward this large whale and saw it surface several times letting out large blows. At first the whale seemed to be very relaxed only coming to the surface every now and then without showing much of itself, but after a little while we spotted a flock of birds feeding and it seemed as if the whale was headed in that direction. Just as we had predicted the humpback whale surfaced right below these birds and rolled on top of the oceans surface letting us with see its large mouth and then its large fin as if it were just waving to us. The whale continued to surface regularly as it was before, but all of the sudden to the right of the boat only about 60 meters away the humpback whale fully breached out of the water jumping up and out letting us see it's entire body and turning 180 degrees before splashing back into the water. We could not believe our eyes this was amazing and beautiful. We all cheered and could not wait to see what it might do next. We got to see it surface few times leaving a large blow behind and it finally made it's way to another flock of birds where it surfaced and rolled on the water one more time letting us see its large fin. The whale then made it's way towards another boat across from us and started to flap its tail hard on the water. This is also a very cool thing to see , however, this is an aggressive behavior and usually means that the whale would like to be let alone. We respected the whale and headed on our way to see if we could find something else. We continued on our way finding some large flocks of Puffins sitting on the water. Before heading home we stopped at puffin island where thousands of puffins seemed to be flying all around. This tour was truly magical and rare. We all left extremely happy and excited about what we were able to see today.

-Taylor Theódór