Friday, 29 June 2012

Tour at 20:30

The wind had picked up a little bit when we sailed out this stunning evening. The day today was little bit difficult and this evening just kept on being a bit strange to us all. We found a minke whale soon. This one was very nice and it surfaced many times in front of us so we could all take a look. After a while we wanted to head further out as we saw in our binoculars lot of birds in a distance. On the way we saw a massive blow! Wow this had to be something very big, but when we got closer we did not see anything at all! After a long waiting there we saw another big blow in a distance and we went to that area. The same thing happened, nothing to see and lot of wait...and again we saw another big blow in a distance! This was just very strange, we saw 5 big blows, all in a distance from each other but only once we could manage to see the whale (which was a minke whale). Our time was running out and we needed to head back to the harbour. When we were getting closer to Reykjavík we saw a BIG SPLASH! And again! This was a breaching minke whale! It breached one more time were everybody could see it very clearly! A very nice ending of a very difficult tour!

Tour at 1700

Report from Hafsúlan: At the beginning of our tour it was a little bit difficult. We spotted two minke whales but unfortunately only once. But since there were a lot of feeding birds around us we stayed in this area and finally we could see one more minke whale. We saw him several times, we saw his blow and we could see his body and dorsal fin very clear. At the very end of our tour we found another minke whale - he was even closer to the boat and we enjoyed him very much.

 

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The weather was still very beautiful when we headed out this afternoon. When we left the harbour we aimed to an area where we saw lot of seabirds. When we got to the area we spotted a minke whale surfacing close to the boat. We could see it few times very close to us and it was very beautiful to see it surfacing right in the sun glare! After a while this minke swam away and we headed further out. Again we saw lot of seabirds but not so many whales. We found another minke whale but this one was being very tricky and just swam away, and yet again we tried another area. We searched in a very large area, saw lot of seabirds but no whales. After a long time we saw a blow from a minke whale. We only saw this one surfacing twice before we had to go back to Reykjavík harbour. Little bit tricky tour this afternoon with one very nice minke in the beginning.

Tour at 1300

Report from Hafsúlan: Our midday tour started under good conditions. The sea calmed down, the sun was shining and our stop at the puffin island was great since there were many puffins all around. We saw many sea birds feeding on the sea but unfortunately there were not so many whales in the bay. We found one minke whale and we could see him several times. After surfacing 2 or 3 times it always took a bit until he came up again but luckily he stayed close to the boat and we could enjoy him.

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: We sailed out in a beautiful weather this sunny Friday morning. After about 30 minutes we spotted a minke whale! We were so happy to find it as our sister vessel Hafsúla was in another area. We soon found out that we had several minke whales in the same area among thousands of seabirds. Some of them were though being very elusive but at least we could see few of them very close to us as they surfaced just right in front of us for few times in a row. Very beautiful morning with few minke whales, some very elusive and others very nice.

Tour at 0900

Report from Hafsúlan: The nature has changed alot overnight. From seeing many Humpback Whales to only seeing a couple of Minke Whales, which were great to watch but it would have been great to also see the humpbacks. We sailed out to our favourite areas and saw some great Harbour Porpoises on the way (about 3-5 animals) surfing the swells and many seabirds. It wasn´t until the end of the tour however that we got a good look at the Minkes. We saw 4 in total but only got a good look at one of them. In the end it was a long tour with a couple of good whales and beautiful sunshine. Great morning to out at sea.