Monday, 18 August 2014

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The wind was picking up more and there was still swell but most people enjoyed the blue sky and the sunshine. In the haze at the horizon Snæfellsnes and Reykjanes were to be seen and all the other mountains around. In this nice scenery we were struggling to show the passengers the cetacean even there were there beneath the waves. Some did a great job in spotting and could gaze at the 2 harbour porpoises which once even leaped in some distance and came up for a few times or saw the minke whale which was also just up for a few glimpses. But on the calmer way back we stopped and turned around because of a fin reflecting in the sunlight. As this fin didn't disappear we had a very good chance to have a long close up look at a basking shark which circled several times around our boat and was at times just a few meters away from us. We saw the two fins (tail & dorsal) sticking out above the water surface and the silhouette of this huge shark under water. This shark definitely made this tour worth being out on the ocean!

- Carine Zimmermann

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: It was still sunny this afternoon when we sailed out on the bay but a little windy and rocky. We came to an area where we could see a small flock of birds and there we saw the first minke whale of the tour. We only saw it few times before we lost it but we stayed in the area in hope to see it again, we had nearly given up and left when it finally came up again. We got a quite good look at the whale when it was swimming slowly close to the boat. Not so far from this minke whale we spotted another one, which was much smaller. The third minke whale came much closer to us than the other two and gave us a really good look at himself. On the way back we saw a group very cute of 3-4 harbor porpoises.

- Sigurlaug

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The visibility at the surroundings improved so that we could see Snæfellsjökull. Probably it was the wind which gained strength clearing up all the clouds as we had not just great visibility at the mountains in the distance but also a almost clear blue sky. We managed to find 1 minke whale and at the same time there were two white-beaked dolphins surfacing synchronously but as we followed the minke we lost the dolphins out of sight and as we searched for them later on they were gone. But it was a good decision to stay with the minke as he gave as several occasions to have a look at it and the highlight was when he once emerged in a steep angle just closing its mouth as he came up while feeding close to the surface, lifting its head above the water surface. So we were happy of having seen this minke well which was very nice. As we left it behind we could even smell for a short moment how a stinky-minke smells like.

- Carine Zimmermann

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: The weather was good this morning when we sailed out into Faxaflói. We had been sailing for 1 hour when we heard news from other whale watching boats that they had spotted a group of 3-4 white-beaked dolphins. They were going slowly around the area and where very elusive so we lost them after short time but it did not take us a long time to spot the second group of 3-4 white-beaked dolphins. It was a little easier to follow them, they were surfacing very slowly and much closer and we even got them under the boat but they also got elusive so we lost them after some time. The third group of 3-4 white-beaked dolphins was only seen for a very short time but while we were turning the boat to get a better look at them a minke whale came up much closer to the boat! We followed that minke for few minutes. On the way back we saw the third species of the tour a group of 4-5 harbor porpoises!

- Sigurlaug

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: There was some wind and a more significant swell. The sky was partly clouded and cleared up more and more during the tour. That meant that at one time half of the ocean was grey and the other half blue and the sun shone even through the clouds. After a short while we found a minke whale called "Tap" which we could observe close enough to have a good look at its peculiar dorsal fin and even hear him while he was exhaling. When there were more boats coming we left him in search for something else and on our way back we had an other chance to see one more minke, which was travelling quite fast but it was definitely not the same we saw before. So two different minkes in this trip and one of them a familiar one which is always great.

- Carine Zimmermann

Birds seen on today's tours include: fulmars, lesser black-backed gulls, glaucous gull, northern gannets, common guillemots, kittiwakes, puffins, arctic skuas, great skuas, arctic terns, cormorants, storm petrels, manx shearwaters and ravens.