Saturday, 15 June 2013

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: First midnight whale watching of the year and a wonderful tour it was too. We sailed out in great weather, a bit overcast but really nice calm seas. It wasn't long that we had to wait for a first cetacean, A Minke Whale which was relatively close to the city. This whale was however only showed itself once so we headed offshore. We found ourselves then amongst a pod of Harbour Porpoises, 5-10 individuals in all, very scattered, popping up here and there. It was the White-beaked Dolphins though that were the funnest to watch (20-30 animals) as they jumped and breached and played around the boat. So much fun wo watch and photograph. After some time playing with the dolphins we wanted to try our luck with another Minke Whale, which we found but it was going for long dives, we were patient and saw it a couple of times before heading back to land to see the puffins on the Island and listen to the very talented Roland Hartwell, our lovely musician for this evenings tour. Wonderful end to a very successful day :)

Tour at 17:00

Report from Skrúður: What an amazing tour! It started quite slowly with a few pods of White-beaked dolphins which were very far away. As we headed only a few hundred meters further the show began. A Minke whale surfaced very close to the boat. It was swimming very slowly and we thought it might be resting. The next half an hour or so it came extremely close to us and another whale watching boat that was in the area, diving under us, surfacing only meters from us, at times showing its head. It was very clear that it was aware of our presence and it seemed to enjoy it as it approached us again and again greeting us with its friendly blows. Thus we spent more than half an hour until we decided to slowly head a bit further as we had noticed big pods of White-beaked dolphins. And as soon as we got going, they were all around us, playing in the bow waves of the boat, swimming ahead of us and to both of our sides, breaching up out of the water showing their whole bodies! We thought we had gotten very luck and everyone was amazed by the experience but it wasn't over yet. A big splash was spotted in the distance, one which was too big for a dolphin. Another Minke whale was breaching out of the water, hitting the surface with its belly and splashing water over the breaching dolphins which were coming up all around it. On the way back we were accompanied by even more dolphins, two Minke whales and finally a group of harbour porpoises who only stopped by briefly. For a large part of the tour a couple of black guillemots was sitting in the water beside us enjoying the same sightings as we. There were plenty of birds in the puffin island and the Faxaflói bay was absolutely full of wildlife this afternoon. It's always thrilling to experience that these animals seem to enjoy our company as much as we enjoy theirs.

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 14:00

Report from Skrúður: It was a bit more windy as we sailed out in the afternoon but conditions were still good for whale watching. We headed to the same area that we had seen the dolphins in earlier and started our search there. Soon after that we spotted our friends the White-beaked dolphins again and the were very fun to watch. At first they surfaced some distance away and were constantly changing direction but later they came very close and we got an excellent view of them swimming just under the surface of the sea. We then got a report of a Minke whale in the area and after a short while we found it surfacing beneath a flock of birds. It surfaced a few more times close to us and it was a very pleasant encounter. We then sailed back in very good weather with a nice view of the Reykjavik coastline.

-Ívar Elí

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: As we sailed out the fog was a bit lifted and the weather still perfect to go whale watching. First stop was again Akurey the Puffin Island where we saw many Puffins flying around us. After a while we headed out into Faxa Bay to find some whales and it took us not a long time until we spotted a pod of White Beaked Dolphins. They were quite busy feeding but we got them on the right side of the boat and were able to just sail along with them in a short distance, we got a very good look at the white patches on their bodies, it was beautiful. We sailed further out to see if we could spot some Minke Whales and it took us a bit of time until we spotted 2 Minke Whales in a bit of a distance but as we came closer it appeared to be 3 Minke Whales. They were a bit elusive but we got a pretty close look at the and ended the tour very happily.

-Lisa Hofmann

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: We set out today in very good conditions for whale watching. It was overcast and the sea was completely calm and things looked very promising. We sailed out to Akurey and said hello to the puffins first and then headed out to sea to find the whales. We hadn't sailed long when we first saw bits of dorsal fin ahead and soon spotted a pod of White-beaked dolphins. They were very fun to watch, surfacing in groups and surfing the swells, all in all around 5-10 individuals. Soon after we spotted a group of Harbour porpoises, these usually shy cetaceans actually came quite close to the boat, so close that we could see them swimming under the surface. A real treat from these porpoises. Then after a little bit of further searching we spotted a Minke whale, it was a bit elusive, but we got to see it quite well and were quite pleased to have spotted three different types of cetaceans today. We then enjoyed a calm sailing back to Reykjavik after a very good trip.

-Ívar Elí

Tour at 9:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out in a perfect sea condition, very calm sea and almost no wind. First stop was Akurey the Puffin Island where we saw many Puffins flying around. After some time we sailed out to the area where we have seen whales the previous days. It didn´t take us much time until we spotted the first pod of Harbour Porpoises, it was quite a large pod between 15-20 individuals they were quite playfull but after a while we left them to see if we could find something else. After a while we spotted a Minke Whale that surfaced a couple of times very close to our boat and suddenly there showed some other Minke Whales up so in the end we had at least 5 or 6 individuals around us, simply amazing. After that we went torwards our sister vessel Elding that had spotted White Beaked Dolphins and as we arrived there we saw a big group of White Beaked Dolphins between 10 and 15 animals, they were enormously playfull swimming under our boat on and on we got the best look at them ever and passengers were very very happy. We thought this is a great ending for the tour so we headed back to Reykjavík as timing was running.

-Lisa Hofmann

Birds seen on todays tours include: Atlantic Puffin, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Arctic Tern, Razorbill, Common Guillemot, Black Guillemot, Northern Gannet, Fulmar, Arctic Skua, Kittiwake, Common Eider Duck, Oystercatcher, Leach's Storm Petrel.