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Monday, 10 June 2013

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsulan: The skies looked a little dark on our way out, but soon the rain stopped, the sun came out and the sea was calm...but not for long. The wind picked up again and the rain came back. Our passengers were very commited and stayed with me through what seemed to be a mix of good and gloomy weather. We headed out to sea anxious to see some whales, but instead we saw several puffins, cormorants, kittiwakes and some gannets. We continued to search the seas in an effort to find some beautiful whales, but did not find any until the very last of moments. We came upon what seemed to be 3 or 4 different individuals. These Minke Whales were quite shy and only came up out of the water once every so often, but some of them surfaced right in front of our boat, which is always an amazing thing to see. We stayed with these whales for a little while watching them as they seemed to be traveling on through and maybe even feeding along the way. We caught them one last time in the rays of the sunset that peeked through the clouds. On our way back to Reykjavik we visited puffin island where we got to see plenty of cute little puffins and a small island full of eider ducks. Overall the trip was worth the patience and our passengers seemed to enjoy themselves very much.

-Taylor Theodór

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The wind had gotten a bit stronger when we headed out into Faxaflói Bay but it was still warm and nice outside. We headed towards the place we've spotted some whales earlier. It took us maybe 30 minutes until we reached again our sister vessel Hafsúlan which had spotted White Beaked Dolphins and Minke Whales. When we arrived there we saw atleast 3 Minke Whales arround us and we had the White Beaked Dolphins in front of the boat busy feeding. There were also some Harbour Porpoises circling us. The Minke Whales surfaced a couple of times very close to boat and as they became more elusive, we decided to head on to find some other animals. After some minutes of sailing we had a huge pod of Harbour Porpoises all arround the boat coming so close that we could have touched them. They were so lovely to watch not getting tired to surface all arround the boat and passengers got an excellent look on the grey/white patches on their bodies. Just after we decided to head on to Lundey the Puffin Island we spotted the mother Minke Whale with her calf again that we have seen this morning. They were not up for the show so we left them as time was running. After maybe 5 minutes we saw a very funny seal popping up right next to the boat looking at us very suprised, unfortunately it didn´t come up again so we kept on sailing when a Minke Whale just breached out of the water right next to the boat, all the passengers were screaming and actually non of the crew member saw the breaching Minke but at least the passengers saw it and everyone was extremely happy after we visited Lundey were we saw many Puffins we headed back to the harbour with a lot of memories for the day.

-Lisa Hofmann

 

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsulan: We left Reykjavik harbour and the wind had picked up a little since this moring, but the seas were still amazingly calm on the way out. It took us a little while to find our first animal but some lovely Harbour Porpoises found thier way to us and were not afraid of interacting with the boat. We continuned on our way and out of no where a large Minke Whale appeared right in front as the boat as if to let us know that he was there and ready to say hi. We were lucky to see this beautiful creature lunge feed a few times before he / she disappeared. We continued in our search and soon found a couple more Minke Whales. This time one of the minke whales came right next to the boat so that we could see it under the water. It was amazing to see its white fins underwater. It then breached the surface and have a great big blow from its blowhole. We saw a few more Minkes in the distance and then came across a pod of White-Beaked Dolphins. These lovely creatures swam along with us and even jumped a few times in the air to show us their wonderful colors. Before heading back to Reykjavik we got to see one more Minke surface and bid us farewell. On our way back we stopped by puffin island to see lots of puffins and even some cormorants. It was a very exciting tour.

-Taylor Theodór

 

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: We sailed out in excellent sea conditions this morning, the sea was very calm and there was absolutely no wind. Our first stop today was Akurey the Puffin Island but there were not so many birds arround so we decided to head further out into the bay to find some whales. Our sister vessel Hafsúlan had spotted some Minke Whales so we sailed in the same direction and after 20 minutes we saw atleast 5 different Minke Whales arround us. We even saw a mother with her calf and the calf surfaced very close to our boat so the passengers could see the white patches on the flippers, it was amazing. We stayed a bit with the mother and her calf but after a while we headed on to not disturb them too much. After a short while we saw a huge group of Harbour Porpoises everywhere arround the boat coming so close that we could see the whole body under the water surface it was simply beautiful. On the way back to Reykjavík we spotted some more Minke Whales in the distance and everybody was very happy when also the sun came out. It was a great tour!

-Lisa Hofmann

 

Tour at 9:00

Report from Hafsulan: We left the Reykjavik harbour with calm seas and warm weather. We stopped at puffin island and saw many beautiful puffins flying around, fishing in the sea and enjoying themselves on such a great day. We headed our way out towards the sea with the beautiful Reykjavik skyline behind us, Esja mountain to the side of us and the open ocean in front of us. It wasn't long until we saw our first Harbour Porpoise. We continued on our way and saw more harbor porpises and plenty of puffins, kittiwakes and artic terns that guided us along the sea. Before we knew it we found ourselves amongst many Minke Whales who surrounded the boat and were feeding on what seemed to be many fish. We spent the entire tour watching these beautiful animals who were probably 10-13 in all. They appeared close to the boat and entertained us all with their beautiful grace. We headed back to Reykjavik very happy and content.

-Taylor Theodór

 

Birds seen on todays tour include: Kittiwakes, Northern Gannets, Atlantic Puffins, Black-backed Gulls, Common Guillemots, Black Guillemots, Arctic Terns, Manx Shearwater, Fulmars and Cormorants.