Wednesday, 18 July 2012

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: The weather was still being very nice to us this evening. We sailed out in the bay in very calm sea with clouds all around us which made things little bit mysterious. We found about 3-4 minke whales this evening. At one point we were following 2 or 3 of them at the same time, where they were always surfacing in front of us and then taking a deeper dive. The minkies were being little bit elusive tonight but it was still very nice evening. We could feel how relaxing it was to be out on sea tonight and even the harbour porpoises that we saw seemed to be very relaxed. So all in all a very beautiful evening.

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: This tour was incredible like the other tours of the day, everything was at it's best, the weather, the sea, the birds and the whales, even the fish were feeling left out and tried to show themselves! We headed out to the mirror calm Faxaflói bay and went to Akurey to take a look at the puffins. After that we sailed out and we did not have to look for long before we saw a pod of white-beaked dolphins. We enjoyed their company for a while, they were in no hurry and neither were we. At last we took of to search some more and after a little while we spotted a minke whale, the minke was just like everything else this afternoon, very calm and in no hurry to go anywhere. After a nice time with the minkie we went a little bit further and after only few minutes we spotted another pod of white-beaked dolphins and these dolphins were incredible, played all around the boat, surfaced very close and even jumped out of the water in front of us! When we sailed on they road the pressure waves as a goodbye to us! Sailing on from these awesome dolphins we soon spotted some harbour porpoises that allowed us to get a good look at them. This was a perfect ending to a perfect tour.

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: I don't know where to start! The weather was still absolutely beautiful when we headed out. We started the tour with 3 very nice minke whales, one in each area. It was very beautiful to see them surfacing in such a calm water. After a very nice time with the minkies we headed little bit further out and voilá! A large group of white-beaked dolphins were busy feeding with a group of gannets above them! They did not mind us at all and they were jumping over and over again, swimming under the boat and surfacing just 1 meter away from us! This was just incredible! Pictures say more than thousand words so I hope you can enjoy the pictures here below.

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out again on mirror calm seas but a little bit more rain which came and went throughout the tour. We had a great tour saw three species and very close to the boat. Our first cetaceans of the tour were a small pod of about 5-7 Harbour Porpoises which we were able to spend a little time with which was nice and porpoises tend to be a bit elusive, obviously these didn´t want to belong to that stereotype. We then saw a Minke Whale which we again spent quite some time with as it surfaced close and many times. we then saw White -beaked dolphins (6-8 individuals) about 3 miles away and so we were off. I have to say the dolphins were the highlight of the tour as they came to and swam under and around the boat which was incredible. Time was running out then and we headed back towards land and finished up at Akurey puffin island and saw many Puffins and Eider Ducks. Great cetaceans in great seas with a bit of rain.

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: It was so nice to have this calm sea when we headed out this morning. We saw lot of harbour porpoises around as they were just slowly surfacing in the area. Later on in the tour we managed to find three minke whales! We could get quite close to one of them and it was just beautiful to see it surfacing in the mirror calm sea! Very nice morning!

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Today started with cloudly skies that threatened rain but mirror calm seas. We had a great group of british wildlife experts onboard this tour so it was fantastic to get the extra help they provided in searching for the whales. We had a fantastic tour not only did we see thousands of puffins on the island but also three species of cetacean. Harbour Porpoises, White-beaked Dolphins and Minke Whales and at one time all in the same area. The porpoises we in small scattered pods of maybe 2-4 animals in each, one pod of dolphins that came to the boat and interacted with us a little and we even saw at least 5+ Minke Whales but they were a bit difficult to get close too except one that surfaced very close to our boat shocking us in the process.  Wonderful morning in Faxaflói Bay.