Friday, 21 June 2013

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: There was a definate party atmoshere on the boat this evening and after seeing the puffins at akurey and finding 3 Minkes Whales which all surfaced together, two seemed to be travelling together and occasionally surfacing close to the boat we listened to our live musician Bjarni Baldvinsson, guests were dancing and have a fantastic time in the midnight sun, whilst others enjoyed the tranquility of the setting sun from outside decks. Beautiful night to be out at sea :)

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: In the evening, we sailed out under wonderful conditions, there was only a slight wind blowing and even though it was a bit cloudy in the harbour, we could already see that blue sky and sunshine would await us further out in the bay. After stopping by at Akurey once more, to enjoy the cute "clowns of the sea", we headed further out, hoping to spot some cetaceans in the bay. Again, we were not disappointed as just after 20 minutes of sailing, a Minke Whale and a group of 3 to 4 White-beaked Dolphins showed up in the same area in front of our boat - what a perfect tour start! As we continued our search, we spotted more Minkes (5 to 8 in toatal) and dolphins (5 to 15 in total) and thoroughly enjoyed watching them. Also, plenty of Harbour Porpoises were surfacing every here and then. The sun was reflecting on the cetaceans' wet backs and some dolphins presented us a special show jumping here and there out of the water. The Minke made us a very personal present by exposing us to its stinky breath, a mixture of rotten eggs and rotten fish - delicious!:-) It was a very funny and enjoyable evening tour with very nice cetaceans and even nicer passengers - thank you very much for being part of it!

-Hendrik Schultz

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The wind had picked up slightly on this tour but the sun was still strong. We started the touur at puffin island this time and there was a little less than from the 10:00 tour, they must have started to head offshore to feed. Our first cetacean was a Minke Whale which we could see clearly surface a couple fo times, we then headed out and got a surprise visit by a friendly Harbour Porpoise which was playing around the boat for a couple of minutes before heading back to it's buddys. We saw 3 pods of porpoises throughout the tour, 3-5 animals in each. We then came to an area of 4-6 Minke Whales feeding which we found by finding a big flock of seabirds. wonderful afternonn tour.

-Megan Whittaker

Tour at 13:00Report from Hafsúlan: The sun was still shining although it was a bit windy while we were heading out. We sailed to the area that we went to this morning and hoped that we would find something there. After sailing for about 1 hour in beautiful summer weather we finally spotted a Minke Whale about 70 meters away. It only surfaced two times and then it was gone, but very soon after the first sighting we realised that the Area had more animals that were surfacing around us, but as always with the Minke Whales this is a game of patiens and searching. We had two animals in the same spot that came close to the boat and we got a good look at them. As we kept on searching we saw 4-5 dorsal fins surface infront of us, it was the White-beaked Dolphins! we saw them for a couple of times but they disappeared soon after, also we saw a few Harbour Porpoises, maybe 4 animals that were jumping around us. In the tour around 6-8 Minke Whales surfaced around us and very close to the boat.What a good tour in great weather-Freydís Ósk Hjörvarsdóttir

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: We sailed out in beautiful weather and calm seas. The wildlife on this tour was also great with 20-30 White-beaked Dolphins, leaping and breaching out of the water. They were quite occupied in finding their breakfast but it was really nice watching them do so. We then went looking for the Minke Whales and found an area of the bay with 5-7 different individuals, obviously feeding like the dolphins, couple of occasions surfacing very close to the boat. We ended at puffin island to see the puffins and other seabirds before heading back to the harbour.

-Megan Whittaker

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: When we sailed out Reykjavik's harbour in the morning, a beautiful icelandic summer day was greeting us with friendly sunshine and calm seas. When we stopped by Akurey, one of the puffin islands, we thoroughly enjoyed watching thousands of the charismatic "penguins of the north". When we headed further, it just took about 20 minutes until we spotted some White-beaked Dolphins in the distance and we decided to visit them. It was beautiful to see between 10 and 20 individuals feeding and some of them coming very close to the boat. One of the highlights were some individuals coming towards us and diving from one side of the boat to the other. Since they were diving just about one meter below the surface, we were able to see their bodies shining through the water - beautiful! While we were watching the dolphins, we spotted a flock of feeding seabirds further out in the bay. As we got there, we spotted about three Minke Whales surfacing in a radius of 150 meters around our boat. As we were patiently waiting for them to resurface, we were rewarded with a Minke surfacing just about 20 meters from our boat so that we could hear its blow. Luckily, the wind was not coming towards us so that we were untroubled by the bad breath of the "Stinky Minke". In the end of the tour, we saw another group of about 20 White beaked Dolphins - a wonderful finish for this enjoyable morning tour.

- Hendrik Schultz

Birds seen on today's tours: Atlantic Puffins, Eider Ducks, Arctic Terns, Cormorants, Kittiwakes, Black-backed Gulls, Arctic Skuas, Northern Gannets, Greylag Geese