Thursday, 20 June 2013

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: Wow what an evening, not only was the sunset beautiful but the wildlife was incredible as well. We must have seen over 50 White-beaked Dolphins on this tour, in the distance and close up, they were jumping so high and landing on their sides with a massive splash. We were seeing blows (exhaled breathe) of the Minke Whales too everywhere, and saw their bodies a couple of times too. Must have seen at least 3-4 Minke Whales and the blows of more in the distance. It was just amazing, everywhere you looked there was something happening, dolphins jumping, minke whales surfacing, gannets diving into the water and all in the midnight sun. We sailed home with the talanted vocals of Ingvar Valgeirsson and stopped off at puffin island before heading to land and knew now why we didn´t see so many out at see because they were all home, thousands chilling out in the midnight sun ;)

- Megan Whittaker

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsulan: We headed out in a beautiful evening glare and stopped first at Akurey, the Puffin Island. unfortunately there were not many birds around so we continued sailing out for the whales. We had to sail for a while before we spotted the first Minke Whale, which was a bit elusive so we kept going and saw amazing jumping White Beaked Dolphins in a distance. As we got closer we saw the really well and one juvenile Dolphin came alone to our boat, swimming under it many times checking us out and after he left we got a breathtaking final jump as he went back to his group of 8-10 White Beaked Dolphins. It was an epic moment. On the way back to Reykjavik, we saw some more Minke Whales, 2-3 and a breaching Minke in a few hundred meters distance, with huge splashes. It was just the perfect end of this tour!!

-Lisa Hofmann

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: once again we sailed out with sunny skies and little bit of a choppy sea. Our 1400 tour was much like the 1000, started off very slowly but ended nicely. We started at the puffin island and there wasn´t many there, which meant they were most likely out at sea catching dinner. We sailed offshore and it was quite awhile until we saw our first cetaceans, a pod of White-beaked Dolphins, 5-7 of them that was surfing in the swells and surfacing next to the boat, it was wonderful to watch them swimming under the waters surface. Then it was a Minke Whale that surfaced, we were able to follow it for some time and once two minke whales surfaced at once, one just 10 meters from the boat. and you could really smell this minkes breath. Stinky Minke!

- Megan Whittaker

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out this afternoon in much the same conditions as this morning, good conditions for whale watching. We started our search in the same area we saw cetaceans in our earlier tour. After a bit of searching our patience was rewarded and we spotted a Minke Whale! We saw it a few times and got some good looks at it. Soon after we lost track of the minke we spotted some White-beaked dolphins, likely around 5-7 individuals. They were very social and swam around and under the front of the boat. We got a fantastic look at them just underneath the surface very close to the boat, an awsome display. Then we headed back in the gleaming sun and finished the tour at Akurey with the puffins.

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: We sailed out today on one of the sunniest days of the summer so far, a bit windier offshore than expected as the harbour showed very calm seas. Our tour was very slow to begin with but ended great as we got to see two small pods of 2-3 Harbour Porpoises, travelling fast meters from our boat, a pod of 5-7 White-beaked Dolphins feeding with the seabirds overhead and one Minke Whale that surfaced many times. The puffin island was a nice ending to the tour, watching all the puffins sitting on the waters surface and flying around the island. So a slow start but a great finish.

- Megan Whittaker

Tour at 9:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out in a perfect sunny morning for the second day in a row. We sailed for half an hour until we spotted the first Minke Whale. We had at least 4 to 5 individuals around us and we all got a very close look at them. Suddenly we spotted jumping 5 to 10 White Beaked Dolphins in front of Andrea the other whale watching boat, so we decided to check them out and it was a pleasure to see them jumping and splashing the water. Afterwards we even had a Minke Whale and the White Beaked Dolphins surfacing very close together, what a great day. As time was running we said goodbye to the whales and dolphins and headed back to Akurey to visit the Puffins.

-Lisa Hofmann

Birds seen on today's tours: Arctic Terns, Arctic Skuas, Atlantic Puffins, Kittiwakes, Lesser Black-Backed Gulls, Fulmars, Common Guillemots, Black Guillemots.

Picture of the tail of the Minke Whale taken by: Dietmar Galla