Saturday, 13 July 2013

Tour at 20:30:

Report from Elding: As we headed out on our evening tour the wind had picked up a bit. We started in Akurey where we saw some atlantic puffins. Then we headed out in search of whales. We searched a very big area and only spotted one Minke Whale which surfaced once and then it was gone. There didn't seem to be much life in the bay this evening, not a lot of birds nor whales. 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 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We headed straight out into Faxa Bay to look for some whales. It was a long searching before we spotted the first Minke Whale and this one was also very elusive so kept on searching. After a while we found 2 Minkes that surfaced at the same time in a bit of a distance. We managed to see them a few times but it was a difficult tour with a lot of searching in between. We also saw some Harbour Porpoises but they were very shy and surfaced only twice. Even though it was raining a lot I had some really brave sailors up with me helping, looking for the whales. We got to see a lot of sea birds which was very nice. Akurey, the Puffin Island on the way back to shore was a nice ending even though the majority seemed to be fishing or having a cozy time in their burrows.

-Lisa Hofmann

Tour at 14:00:

Report from Elding: We started the tour in Akurey on this foggy, rainy day. There were not many puffins to see so they were probably out at see fishing or in their burrows. We headed straight out to where we had seen the Minke Whales that morning. As we got there we spotted at least 4 Minke Whales here and there and two of them even surfaced very close to the boat, just 20m away. As we were heading back two White-beaked Dolphins popped up right next to us. They were swimming under the boat and seemed very curious about us. We stayed with them for a while before they headed further out and we decided to go back to shore.

-Aldís Erna Pálsdóttir

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: It was still raining when we started our tour, what a summer this year. We decided to go to Lundey first, another Puffin colony close to Reykjavík. There were unfortunately not many Puffins so I told the passengers I would point them out when we see them offshore sitting on the water surface. The wind had calmed down so the sea conditions was quite good. We had to search for some animals for half an hour. We spotted 2 Minke Whales in the same area but they were rather elusive so we continued to a spot were estimated more whales and there we found 2 more Minke Whales. They surfaced a couple of times in a bit of a distance but everyone got to see them even though we had to be very patient in between.

-Lisa Hofmann

Tour at 10:00:

Report from Elding: As we headed out it was raining but very soon it cleared up. We started in Akurey. We then headed out and after about half an hour we spotted a Minke Whale. This one disappeared quickly. After that we spotted a few more Minkes but they seemed to be travelling fast so we never got a good look at any of them. We then saw one Minke rather close and as we were waiting for it to resurface we saw some breaching White-beaked Dolphins. This was a big pod, 10-12 individuals but they were very scattered. They jumped very often and swam close to the boat. A great ending to the tour.

-Aldís Erna Pálsdóttir

Tour at 9:00

Report from Hafsúlan: It was a rainy morning when we started our morning tour. The first stop today on the way out was Akurey, the Puffin Island. There were many Puffins home so we could enjoy the lively "Penguins of the North" for a while. We were later searching a long time in the bay but spotted a Minke Whale only a few times and rather far away. Not everyone managed to see it so we gave our passengers complimentary tickets, valid for 2 years so they can come on another tour with us for free.

-Lisa Hofmann

Birds seen on todays tour include: Manx Shearwaters, Northern Gannets, Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Great Black-backed gulls, Atlantic Puffins, Common guillemots, black guillemot, Arctic Terns, Great Skua and Arctic Skua.