Friday, 23 October 2015

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: This was undoubtedly the tour of the month so far! We sailed out in very weak winds from northwest and a sunny sky that remained through most part of the tour. We had very nice views over the landscape and the snow covered mountains around us. After 50 minutes of sailing I spotted what I thought was a big blow in the distance. I kept my eyes in that direction waiting to see if I was right. After some minutes of waiting I started to doubt myself, but then... A big blow again! No question about it a big whale in front of us in the distance. We set course and we could see the blows as we got closer. On the scene we could confirm that it was a humpback whale! So glad that these gentle giants are still around. We could observe the whale for a long time as it was busy feeding. It surfaced very close to us and raised it's fluke several times, we couldn't ask for more. We spent the remaining time of the tour with this humpback and we returned to harbour with a big smile on our faces!

- Marcus Bergström   

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey and Hafsúlan: Due to a high number of passengers we went out with two boats this morning. We had some cold northeastern winds but the weather was otherwise clear and dry. Both boats entered an area that looked really promising with a lot of seagulls and gannets on the water surface. Seabirds are always a good sign that it is a lot of fish in the area. We slowed down and searched thoroughly. Soon Eldey found a pod of 2-3 white-beaked dolphins. We could observe the dolphins for a while and it was also a second pod in the area with at least 2 dolphins. At one point we could see a jumping dolphin in the distance. Before we had to head back to harbour Hafsúlan found a third pod of 4-5 dolphins. This pod contained at least one calf that was very playful leaping out of the water on several occasions. We returned to harbour with wonderful dolphins encounters and a beautiful landscape on our minds.  

- Marcus and Hanna  

Birds seen on todays tours include: northern gannets, northern fulmars, "blue" fulmars, sooty shearwaters, razorbills, common guillemots, eider ducks, greater black-backed gulls, glaucous gulls, Iceland gulls, kittiwakes and black-headed gulls.