Monday, 17 November 2014

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We first sailed west along the Seltjarnarnes Peninsula, past the beautiful Grótta lighthouse and carried on past. It was about 30 minutes after leaving the harbour, watching all the seabirds as we travelled, when our First Officer Gulli spotted a blow and a tail raising from the blue murky waters of Faxaflói Bay. A humpback whale, we were so happy as it has been over a week now when we saw our last humpbacks. This individual seemed to be feeding, always changing it's cause and once when it surfaced close you could see the water draining from its mouth. After an hour of watching this incredible animal we decided to leave it in peace and search for other cetaceans in the bay, maybe dolphins. We travelled towards the Whale Fjord then (Hvalfjörður) and after 20 minutes of sailing saw a large splash, at first we thought it was dolphins but as soon as we saw the blow over a kilometer in the distance we knew it was another humpback whale. How lucky were we today not only one but two humpback whales. This individual was what I like to call a grumpie humpie, would not let us get too close, very unpredictable in the surfacing and diving for long periods. We only stayed with this one for about 20 minutes before we headed home in the cold wintery winds. A wonderful day in the bay.

- Megan Whittaker

Birds seen on today's tour include: black-backed gulls, glaucous gulls, iceland gulls, eider ducks, common guillemots, black guillemots, cormorants and kittiwakes.