Friday, 16 May 2014

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We headed into the wind and a little bit of rain when we went to the area where we saw the animals in the trips before. The amazing gannets we saw plunge feeding continued with their spectacle together with White-beaked Dolphins (5-9) jumping out of the water. And in that same area we discovered at least 3 different Minke Whales, feeding around the boat in different directions and distances. With so much action going on all around the boat it was difficult to decide where to go and what to watch! We watched the dolphins for a while and then continued on to watch the different minke whales a bit more closely. One of them surfaced right in front of our boat and gave us a very nice look before heading further. The gannets were still plunging into the water all around us and made it difficult to leave - it was almost raining gannets! Right as we were about to turn around to head back into the harbour we discovered the dolphins were jumping again. We got another great look - especially at one individual repeatedly leaping and breaching. On the way back we enjoyed the last few rays of sun and 2 more Minkes and around 4 Harbour Porpoises (additional to the 3-5 on the way out). What an amazing end to an incredible day of whale watching!

- Linda and Carine

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Once again the weather was perfect and hadn't changed much from the morning, except maybe a stronger breeze. We sailed out to the area we were this morning to find hundreds of seabirds, everywhere arctic terns were skimming the surface, gannets were plunge diving, skuas and seagulls stealing fish from other birds it was a birds enthusiasts paradise. For the cetacean enthusiasts we also had a great encounter from a pod of 5-7 white-beaked dolphins, feeding under the birds. They were also fantastic surfacing many times and close to the boat too. It's always wonderful to see them traveling just under the waters surface. After a while with the dolphins we went searching for a Minke Whale and just as soon as we told our passengers that, one was spotted about 800 meters away. By the end of the encounter the whale was surfacing happily 50m and sometimes less from us. On the way home we spotted another minke whale and another small pod of 3-5 dolphins. Once again a wonderful afternoon with lots too see. Even a small pod of 3-4 harbour porpoises were spotted on the way out and another 2-3 individuals on the way home. Fantastic!

- Carine and Megan

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: There was a black cloud over us this morning showering heavy rain as we headed out of the harbour, but if passengers didn´t believe the Icelandic joke ´if you don´t like the weather, just wait 5 minutes´they do now. Just 5 minutes sailing the skies cleared and we had beautiful sunshine the rest of the way. After about 40-50 minutes of sailing on a calm sea we saw our first Minke Whale, surfacing many times giving our passengers plenty of opportunities for pictures. After spending about 20-30 minutes with this minke we saw another in the distance and spent another 20-30 with that one too. Soon we were seeing blows and black backs surfacing in the distance to. We found ourselves the jackpot of the bay, seabirds started to form large flocks to feed and two pods of White-beaked Dolphins of 7-9 in the first and 3-4 in the second showed up too. They were fantastic, best dolphins we have seen in a while. Surfacing very close, even playing around us and what was really incredible is that were leaping and breaching out of the water just 20-30m from our boat. Usually a behaviour seen at a distance. The tour was just incredible. The weather, landscape, birds and the whales combined made this a trip to remember.

- Megan

Birds seen on today´s tours include: Atlantic Puffin, Northern Gannet, Common Guillemot, Kittiwake, Northerm Fulmar, Arctic Skua, Arctic Tern, Black-Backed Gull, Manx Shearwater, Eider Ducks.