Monday, 1 August 2011

Tour at 20:30

What a beautiful evening. One of the best sunsets I've seen this summer and really nice seeing Reykjavik lit up on our way back to the harbour. We started at Akurey and there wasn't many there, it was like spotting Waldo but nice to think they are snuggled up in their burrows nice and warm. Then we headed out into Faxaflói. The first Minke Whale we saw was quite elusive and only saw it in the distance. The next was fantastic and surfaced many times and whilst watching this Minke we saw another in the distance. Then suddenly two surfaced at once right next to each other. We saw a couple of Harbour Porpoises too which was really nice.

 

Tour at 17:00

We had to search for some time before we found our first minke whale. This one was being little bit shy and was only coming up once before going for a deeper dive. We stayed with this one for few minutes before going somewhere else. Again we found another minke whale but it only came up one time before going for a deeper dive. A little later we found our third minke whale! And this one was really great, surfacing so many times just next to the boat! Very nice minke whale in the end!

 

Tour at 14:00

This tour was definitely one of the best tours of the day. We started our tour at Akurey to see the Puffins then about 20 minutes later we found a small pod of 3 White-beaked Dolphins which, albeit they were a little bit elusive but still really nice to watch. Then we found a couple of Harbour Porpoises that at one point came just 5 meters from our boat. If that wasn't enough we went to an area where there was many seabirds and many Minke Whales at least between 7-13 individuals surfacing everywhere. We turned off the engines and watched nature at it's best. Some surfaces 10 meters from us and one that was surface feeding showed its belly. Absolutely breath taking tour!!

 

Tour at 13:00

Absolutely amazing tour! After visiting the puffin island, Lundey, we headed out to find the whales! First we spotted a minke whale! This whale was surfacing many times very close to us! Great start of the tour! Then a little later we saw lot of feeding seabirds, and lot of diving gannets! And there we hit the jackpot! So many minke whales all around us! This was amazing, the whales were rolling in the surface, feeding in the surface and coming really close to the boat! On the way back home we saw very nice pod of harbour porpoises, jumping out of the water! Amazing tour!

 

Tour at 10:00

The weather today was perfect except for the rain but the sea was mirror calm and the visibility was great, being able to sea both peninsulas. We started of at Akurey and saw many Puffins. Then we headed out into Faxaflói and saw at least 4-6 Minke Whales through out the tour. One you could see rolling just 5 meters in front of our boat under the waters surface which was the highlight of the tour. We also saw a couple of Harbour Porpoises to which came within 20 meters us. Fantastic Tour!!

 

Tour at 09:00

AMAZING TOUR! Perfect viewing conditions on a very calm surface allowed us to set a straight course for the Minke whales out in the bay as soon as we left Puffin island Akurey. There were so many of them, must have been some 6-7 animals - as we got closer all of a sudden: a white belly in the water. A Minke surface feeding!!! So cool, only 5 metres away. When we sadly had to leave, we heard about Dolphins from another boat, but couldn't find them. But still a very special tour!

Birds seen on todays tours include; Gannets, Puffins, Guillemots, Razorbills, Manx Shearwaters, Gulls, Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Arctic Terns, Arctic Skuas, cormorants and Eider Ducks