Saturday, 27 July 2013

Tour at 20:30:

Report from Elding: We started our tour in Akurey where we didn't see a lot of puffins but we luckily got to see some more further out at sea. The scenery was absolutely amazing, seeing the sunset behind Snæfellsnes really made this a special tour. But we searched the bay for quite some time before spotting a Minke Whale. As we were waiting for it to resurface we spotted two more whales. We followed the first one for a while, it was swimming slowly and we saw it surface very often. We then decided to say goodbye to that whale and look for something more and we sailed through a big area but we didn't see any more whales. On the way back Eiríkur, our musician, entertained us with his music.

-Aldís Erna Pálsdóttir

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We headed straight out into the beautiful sunny afternoon in search of whales. After a while we spotted a Minke Whale and saw at least 2 more surfacing in a distance. It surfaced a couple of times right next to us and in the glare of the sun which made his back very shiny. We encountered another Minke further out and stayed with this one for a while. Unfortunately there were no Puffins on the Puffin Island on the way back. They were probably offshore fishing or in their burrows with their chicks.

-Lisa Hofmann

Tour at 14:00:

Report from Elding: The sun was still shining in the afternoon and the sea very calm. We headed straight out in search of whales. We spotted a Minke Whale after a while and in the same area we saw two more. We watched these animals for some time and they even came next to the boat, so beautiful to see in the afternoon sun. Then we decided to test our luck by looking further out in the bay. We searched a big area and apart from 3-4 Harbour Porpoises we didn't see anything else. On our way back we stopped in Lundey to enjoy the little puffins.

-Aldís Erna Pálsdóttir

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We headed straight out into Faxa Bay to see if the whales from this morning were still there and we were lucky. We spotted 3-5 Minke Whales in front of the boat. We stayed with them the whole time, they surfaced close to the boat and we got to see them quite well. But what a surprise on the way back, we saw a dorsal fin in a distance and weren´t sure what it was, it was sort of floating not moving a lot. When we got closer we saw it was a Basking Shark , how amazing!! We stayed with this extraordinary animal for a while it was just floating next to us probably resting. The sun was shining and everyone was extremely happy!! Unfortunately not many Puffins on Akurey but still a great day!

-Lisa Hofmann

Tour at 10:00:

Report from Elding: The conditions this morning were close to perfect. The sun was shining and the sea very calm. We started our tour by stopping in Akurey where we saw puffins, arctic skuas, eider ducks and more birds. We headed out to where we had gotten word of Dolphins. After about 45 minutes we encounter a pod of 6-8 White-beaked Dolphins. They were moving slowly and we followed them for a while. Shortly after we spotted a Minke Whale but it only came up once. Soon we saw another Minke Whale and this one came up a few times very close to us before we had to start heading back, whilst enjoying the incredible scenery.

-Aldís Erna Pálsdóttir

Tour at 9:00

Report from Hafsúlan: What a day. It was incredibly warm this morning and blue sky when we headed out to visit Akurey, the Puffin Island. There were only a few Puffins home so we decided to leave after a few minutes to head out into the bay. After some ride we spotted some Harbour Porpoises right next to the boat but saw them only 2-3 times so we kept going. After 30 minutes we spotted the several Minke Whales, 3-5 in total. They surfaced around us, it was very nice to see the white patches on their flippers. We stayed with them for a while and on the way back we spotted 6-10 White Beaked Dolphins which was the perfect ending of the tour some of them even jumped a few times. Amazing start of the day!

-Lisa Hofmann

Birds seen on todays tours include: Arctic Skuas, Cormorants, Northern Gannets, Atlantic Puffis, Kittiwakes, Common guillemots, Great Black-backed Gulls, Arctic Terns and Eider Ducks.