Friday, 16 August 2013

Tour at 17:00Report from Hafsúlan: The weather had gotten beautiful as we headed out in our last tour for today. only after 30 minutes we found a pod of 4-6 White-beaked Dolphins with a young (baby dolphin ) with them. We got a good look at them but then noticed that one of the dolphins was trying to trick us away by swimming under the boat while the others swam fast away, so we decided to search for something else so we wouldn't disturb them to much. just as we sailed away we saw a Minke Whale surfacing a little further away and then noticed at least 3 more Minke's in the area. They surfaced on at a time and some times very close to the boat. as we were watching them we saw a strange dorsal fin, it was the Basking shark again! And now we got an even better look at him as he swam with his mouth open and we could see him perfectly under the surface. While we were watching the shark we could see Minke's surfacing around us. All of a sudden we noticed this very dark long line in the ocean.. we headed closer and then saw that it was a huge school of the fish Mackarel. The ocean was literally boiling from the movement from this large group and they covered the sea all around us. This was a perfect ending to an amazing an unusual tour. This day couldn't have been better!- Freydís Ósk HjörvarsdóttirTour at 14:00

Report from Elding: In the afternoon, the sea was still relatively calm and the sky was covered with a few more clouds than earlier in the day. Our tour started with the amazing sighting of a Basking Shark! These giant sharks, grow up to eight meters in size and feed on little plankton organisms. We do encounter these creatures mostly during this time of the year, but still it is quite a rare event so that I was personally very happy to encounter my first Basking shark ever :-). As we carried on, we were very happy to see between 3 to 5 Minke Whales, some of them surfacing very close to our boat. One of them was "Humpie" a minke with a missing tip of its dorsal fin. We see Humpie since 2011 and it feels like seeing a good friend each time he shows up in faxa bay. In the end of the tour it was very hard for us to leave the Minke Whales since each time we tried to waive goodbye two to three of them showed up again. We returned to Reykjavik quite late, but there were no regrets after such a wonderful experience out at sea.

- Hendrik Schultz

Tour at 13:00Report from Hafsúlan: Our hopes were high as we headed out because of the great sightings in the 9 o'clock tour. We sailed for about 30-40 minutes when we spotted a dorsal fin, it was a pod of 4-6 White-beaked dolphins that were hunting, they even had 2 youngs ( baby dolphins) with them and we got a good look at them until they swam away quickly. we headed a little further out and after only few minutes we saw a Minke Whale, it surfaced slowly around us and a few times very close to the boat so we got a great look at it. As we were heading back to the harbour the biggest surprise of the day showed up.. one of our passengers spotted a Basking Shark, what an amazing animal. He swam around the boat only 1-3 meters away very slowly so we got a great look at this majestic creature, we could even see the whole body under the surface. We ended the trip in Engey, one of the Puffin Islands. The puffin season is over this year but we still saw a lot of puffins there!What an amazing tour .. I wonder what the 17:00 tour will bring us! - Freydís Ósk Hjörvarsdóttir

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: In the morning, the sky was quite cloudy and myst was covering Reykjavik's harbour. However, the wind was calm and as we headed further out the sun warmed our faces so that we ended up having quite a nice weather. It did not take us long until we spotted a Minke Whale. It was quite easy to spot since this minke surprised us by lifting more than one third of its body out of the water. And then, even a second individual showed up doing exactly the same thing. They were quite energetic and we were very happy to see them surfacing and breaching several times. In total we must have seen about three to five Minke Whales this morning. The energetic appearance of the Minke Whales made thismorning's tour a wonderful time out at sea. Eventually, the cherry on the cake was a group of Atlantic Puffins we saw on the island Engey, which we visited being curious whether the charismatic birds were still around that late in the season - glad to see you once more you sweet little puffins! :).

- Hendrik SchultzTour at 9:00Report from Hafsúlan: it was raining as we headed out this morning. We decided to visit Engey, one of the Puffin Islands although the Puffin season is over. We weren't disappointed because there was a lot of puffins there so we started the tour with a smile on our faces. As we headed out the weather cleared up and it stopped raining. After some search we saw the first Minke Whale that was feeding and soon after that the second one showed up as the first one swam away. The Minke even breached (jumped out of the ocean) twice very close to the boat, maybe 15-20 meters away so we got a beautiful look at the white belly. It swam around us, changing directions constantly and surfaced very close to us. There was a lot of birds life in the area and our fish detector showed some fish close to the bottom. What a great tour, it is very rare to see the Minke breach like this here in faxaflói bay because the usual behaviour that we see are the feeding ones. It was a wonderful start to the day and hopefully the next tours will be as good as this one! - Freydís Ósk HjörvarsdóttirBirds seen on today's tours: Atlantic Puffin, Fulmar, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Manx Sheerwater, Northern Gannet, Common Guillemots, Black Guillemots, Razorbills, Kittiwakes, Arctic Skua, Arctic Tern & Gloucous Gull