Monday, 06 April 2015

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: wind was blowing more strongly then in the afternoon and the swells were also getting a bit higher. We sailed west along Reykjanes peninsula to stay in calmer sea then further from land. It rained and hailed on us on the way out but when we got closer to Keflavík it cleared up. There we slowed down to search more carefully around us because this has been a good area for minke whales lately. After a little while we spotted 5-6 harbor porpoises, they were not as easy to follow like in the morning tour but we still were able watch them for a while. soon after we left the porpoises a minke whale surfaced within 100 meters in front of the boat! It surfaced three times very close to us before it went for a deeper dive we spotted it next about 200 meters away from us and were able to see it coming up for air 4-5 times before it vanished. On the way back to land we spotted a blow in a great distance we traveled towards it and saw another blow. This was clearly a big animal but sadly we were never able to get a better look at it. 

Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: we decided to sail out from Hafnafjörður this morning because there we got better sea conditions then if we would have gone out from Reykjavik. We sailed to an area that has been very good lately. A passenger spotted the first cetacean of the tour, a minke whale but we were unfortunately not able to follow it and only saw it surfacing twice in over 200 meters distance. Few gannets were diving down nearby and we went to have a look if any animals were feeding underneath them. We found a pod of 5-6 harbor porpoises close to the gannets, they were most likely feeding and it was just wonderful to watch these tiny animals so close to the boat. We stayed with them for a while and very soon after we left them we saw a pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins, they seemed to not be in a hurry but kept changing  directions and that made it more difficult for us. On the way back we saw again a pod of porpoises but we didn't have time to stop for long with them.

Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Birds seen on today´s tour includes: northern fulmars, iceland gulls, greater black-backed gulls, lesser black-backed gulls, black headed gull, glaucous gull, long-tailed ducks, northern gannets, kittiwakes, eider ducks common guillemot, black guillemot and razorbill.