Friday, 23 May 2014

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The southerly winds had picked up as we left the Reykjavík harbour this afternoon. We were hoping to find the Humpback whales from earlier in the day but it started slowly. The first 90 minutes, we did not see a trace of any whales but then a blow was spotted. We believed it to be from a minke whale but could not confirm it as the animal was never seen properly. Quite disappointing. But as we sailed on, suddenly a passenger spotted a couple of dolphins swimming along the boat just meters away. The next 20 minutes were spent with these 3 beautiful white-beaked dolphins interacting with the boat, diving under it and showing off very nicely. There was even a tiny little young one among them. All in all it was a nice tour that started slowly but ended well!

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Once more we sailed out from Reykjavik with a dark sky, threatening rain, it did stay dry with a slight spitting now and again. It wasn´t long of a sail, just past Grótta the lighthouse, when another whale watching boat let us know of a blow they saw. Yes!! we found the humpback whale from the previous tour, but wait, it wasn´t, it was a different individual. We could tell this by the white pattern under the tail (fluke) as this is unique to each and every individual. This whale was fantastic, very much at ease with our presence, surfacing slowly and a couple of times throwing it´s tail and tail stock up into the air and smashing it onto the surface of the water. It also showed the tail many times too when going on a deep dive. Eventually though he/she went for longer dives and really tested our patience. After a nice look at the humpie we sailed further to see if there was anything else in the area. Unfortunately not so we headed home. A wonderful afternoon with an incredible Humpback Whale.

- Megan

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: With a southerly wind and an overcasted sky we headed out into the bay when we suddenly saw a splash in the distance. Coming closer to this area some Harbour Porpoises did show up, passing a long the side of our vessel. We kept on scanning the water surface for something bigger. Soon after that a 2-3 meter high blow and and a hump appeared. We got very excited knowing that it looked like a blow from a Humpback Whale, species we haven´t seen for a couple of weeks. When we came closer we could clearly see the long, white coloured flippers (pectoral fins) shining greenish through the water. Soon we realised that we found a mother and a calf of this season. More and more boats arrived in the area of the two humpbacks and this might have been the reason for the start of some more active behaviour. The calf rolled once and we saw some tails in the air. Some times they have been slamming them on the water surface and sometimes arching their backs, lifting up their tails when going for a deeper dive.  Before we left, both of the humpbacks showed us their tail and it looked like they would have been waving goodbye. Far at the horizon was a Minke Whale while we were with the humpbacks but when we went to this area later on, it had already been out of sight.

- Carine

Birds seen on today's tours include: Northern gannets, puffins, fulmars, common guillemots, black backed gulls, arctic terns, arctic skuas, kittiwakes, eider ducks.