Friday, 20 July 2012

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: We started the tour on a very calm sea. We stopped at Puffin island but there were not many birds so we didn't stay too long. Out at sea conditions were perfect to spot whales from far away but for more than an hour we sailed with no signs of cetacean. Fortunately when I started to think that all the whales were gone out of the bay, a Minke Whale surfaced just in front of the boat ! Nice surprise ! We followed this guy for a while and when we started to make our way back to Reykjavik we saw another Minke Whale 400 meters away but it was already late so we didn't have the time to go to say hello to this animal. It was great to come back with some live music to relax.

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The first thing we did on this tour was to stop at Akurey to watch the Puffins on the island. Then we headed out into the bay and it did not take us a very long time until we spotted the first Pod of 5+ fast travelling White Beaked Dolphins. They surfaced many times not far away from us and we spended quite a while with them. After that we went on with the search and this took us a long time. We sailed far out into icelands largest bay until we found a second pod of White Beaked Dolphins. But this pod of 10+ individuals was not only fast travelling they were busy feeding on fish close to the surface while Gannets were circling above and diving in betweeen of them. The highlight was that they were jumping again and again, one of them seemed to never stop jumping !!! It was one of those magic moments in Faxafloi Bay and a happy ending of a our day!

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: We had heard that our sistership Hafsúlan had found Minke Whale and we wanted to see them too so we headed straight out. It took us about one hour before we saw our first Minke Whale. Given the bit rough sea with the white tops, we feared for a moment that this whale would only present us with a brief view of itself but we saw it surface several times, each time clear view of the back. Then it took us about twenty minutes before we saw the second Minke Whale on this tour, just as good as the earlier one, it showed its head and middle several times and we were very impressed and pleased. But the best thing about the tour were the small pod of Harbour Porpoises (3-5) that we spotted coming towards us at a fast rate of knots. They were the best porpoises we had seen in days, going straight to play in the waves made by the boat and did their best to jump into the air. They made up for that Puffin Island was virtually deserted when we went to see it on the way back. Indeed we saw most other birds than Puffins there. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow.

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The afternoon we decided to head straight into the calm bay. We were searching for a long time to find a Minke Whale, even the sea conditions were perfect to spot Whales. This individual seemed to be busy feeding, changed direction a lot and surfaced sometimes only a little bit. So it was challenging to spot but we were lucky due to the calm sea we all got a good view on it. As there were other boats coming into the same area we decided to leave the Minke Whale in peace. We sailed through another area before we started to head back towards land. Just on the half way we had a short but great surprise. There was a pod of 5 White Beaked Dolphins surfacing in a bit a distance. We went there and saw them shortly before the time forced us to head back towards land. Before we finally entered the older harbor we stopped at Akurey the Puffin colony.

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: We sailed out of the old harbour of Reykjavik not to hopefull because it was raining a bit and the clouds looked moody. But there was no need to worry, the icelandic weather beeing as unpredictable as always and this turned out to be a very nice trip and the weather stayed nice through the trip as well as the sea conditions. We first headed out to Akurey the puffin colony, there where not to many puffins around but we did see some. Then we headed out Faxaflói bay, the sea very calm and the weather quiet so this was the perfect condition for whale searching. We did not have to search for too long until the first Minke whale of the tour showed itself. It was though rather ellusive, surfacing low so we headed on after a little while. After a little search and sailing we spotted another Minke whale, when we came closer we found out that there was another Minke close by. We stayed with these Minkes for a while and looked at them surfacing all around the boat. We also saw a lot of seabirds at this trip, it was a highlight to see the artic skua trying to steal from various gulls, fulmars and artic terns. On the nice sail back we spotted a small pod of Harbour Porpoises when we sailed past, it was a lovely ending to a lovely tour.

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Before we went further out into the bay we stopped at Akurey the Puffin colony in front of Reykjavik. The sea condition was excellent this morning and we only passed one rain shower on the way out. The first stop we had already close to land as one Harbor Porpoise surfaced in front of our boat. It did not show up again so we headed on. Out in the bay we stopped a second time again it was a Harbor Porpoise that interrupted us, unfortunately again shy and illusive. We searched in another area and found the first Minke Whale of the tour. It was slowly surfacing in different directions but several times not more than 10 meter away from us. We stayed a while with this individual until we went to another area with two+ Minke Whales around us. They were again busy feeding but great to watch. They surfaced at the same time in different directions and one of them even dived under our vessel. We headed back towards Reykjavik after a good start into a new day!