Friday, 22 August 2014

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: As the sun was setting the wind was getting stronger, but it was still pleasant to sail and watch for whales. Due to the great visibility we were also able to see Snæfellsjökull in the distance over-towering the bay of Faxafloí. We were searching already for quite some time when we got word of a minke whale in the area. Sadly enough the hope soon faded as the individual did not show itself again. Even the birds seemed to have left the bay this evening. Apart from a small flock of shearwaters and the random northern fulmar not much could be seen. It seemed as if the food situation had changed drastically compared to this morning and afternoon. Thus, we had to return to the harbour without having seen a whale. All passengers received complimentary tickets and we hope to see all of them again in the future.

-Dominik Schmid

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The wind was getting a little stronger and the sea a bit rockier but we still got good sea conditions when we went out on the bay this afternoon. We heard news from the other whale watching boat that they had spotted two minke whales. We went right away to that area but we could not find them on the other hand it didn’t take us a long time to spot a group of 3-4 white-beaked dolphins in front of us, we followed them for some time but it was very hard because they spent a long time under water.  After watching the dolphins we decided to try again to find these minke whales and we did! One of them was still in the area, it was a bit elusive but we were still able to see it few times. We sailed for a little while until we saw another minke whale that we followed for some time, it was travelling quite fast so it was not easy to keep up with it but still we got a fairly good sighting.

-Sigurlaug

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The wind had picked up slightly, but the sun was getting warmer in return too. We got word of a minke whale close to Grotta, the lighthouse, and decided to have a look there. As soon as we reached the area, the minke whale appeared and calmly surfaced as much as 5-6 times before going on a deeper dive. We tracked the individual for about 25 minutes and had many great looks at this large animal. Afterwards we headed further out only to discover a pod of joyful white-beaked dolphins leaping, breaching and spinning only 500 meters away. The animals must have jumped as high as 3 meters and caused gigantic splashes. However, upon approach the 5-8 individuals calmed down and were difficult to observe after. Therefore, we changed our course and found ourselves another pod of (4-6) dolphins. Lastly, we spotted a large flock of feeding seabirds and in midst a feeding minke whale. Twice the whale surfaced only 25 meters from the vessel. All in all a great tour and brilliantly sunny sail today in the bay of Faxafloí.

-Dominik Schmid

Tour at 10:00Report from Elding: Faxaflói Bay greeted us as beautiful as it ever could as we sailed out and there was a good feeling on the boat. We decided to scan a new area first and so went towards Akranes before heading northwest towards the other boats. As it turned out, we only found one minke whale out in the bay and got to show it all right, even if it did spend a lot of time underwater and usually surfaced in a bit of a distance away, apart from one time when it did so several times right in front of the bow. However, the best was yet to come and it came remarkably close to the end of the tour. We had less than twenty minutes left and were aproaching Akurey Island when we saw movements in the water close to the boja. Given how close it was to the city, we thought it would just be a porpoise or two but this turned out to be the second minke whale of the tour and it was much better than the first one for during the time we spent with it, it lunge-fed a few times and surfaced very close. We were quite satisfied on the way back but thanks to the second minke, we were flying high in the sky for the last minutes of the tour!- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The sun was shining warm and bright when we sailed out into the bay of Faxafloí this morning. The mirror like sea was promising excellent whale watching conditions and in fact, only minutes out from the harbour we were able to spot 5-7 harbour porpoises next to the island Aukrey. Under rougher conditions its very tough to observe these small cetaceans, but we were able to follow them for quite some time today. Further out in the bay we then met up with 2 pods of white-beaked dolphins, one was milling in a tight formation while the other one was scattered over a larger area. Upon approach the dolphins even came close to bow-ride with our vessel and many times we could trace their outline beneath the water surface. Eventually, we left the dolphins to look for something larger. Our effort was rewarded when we spotted our first minke whale (and another pod of 4-6 dolphins in the distance). The individual surfaced 3-4 times, but also stayed down for very long periods and thus, we made for a different area. During our search we found another small pod of harbour porpoises, but finally found another minke whale, before we headed back to the harbour.

-Dominik Schmid

Birds seen on today's tours include: Puffins, fulmars, lesser black-backed gulls, guillemots, kittiwakes, northern gannets, arctic terns, storm petrels, arctic skuas and eider ducks