Monday, 25 July 2011

Tour at 20:30

We sailed out in a beautiful weather, the wind had calmed down even more. Sailed straight out to Faxaflói bay, and it took us a while until we spotted our first whales, the harbour porpoises. They were lot of fun to watch, surfacing many times in front of us with the sun next to them and many of them surfaced together very actively. Than we headed on, after a while we spotted a minke whale but he only surfaced once before disappearing. Soon after that we spotted so many white beaked dolphins they were a lot of fun, very active and swimming around us and under the boat, just fantastic to watch. There were few gannets diving in the middle of the group and all of a sudden a minke whale surfaced also but only once. On the way home we had an amazing sunset. We stopped by the puffin island Akurey but there were no puffins to see. Great tour we had tonight.

 

Tour at 17:00

First we stopped at Akurey to visit the puffins, but there was only one puffin to see. Than we headed straight out to Faxaflói, it took us a while until we spotted a massive blow in the distance, so we headed straight in that directions. Again we spotted the blow few times, probably 5-6 meters high! Than it surfaced pretty close to the boat maybe 30 meters and it was a FIN WHALE!!! omg what an amazing sight! We were so excited, it surfaced few times next to us, 3 times in a row each time with a massive blow. We stayed with this beautiful whale until we had to get back to the harbour. Excellent tour!

 

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: Sun had started to shine and conditions were not to bad. First stop was Akurey where the Puffins live, again there were not many of them around only few that we were able to watch fly around us. The search for the whales out on the bay was very difficult. We spotted first some White-beaked Dolphins. They were very difficult to follow but several times they came very close to the boat swimming under it so we could see the whole body and then they were gone. After a while we spotted the first Minke Whale. All in all we spotted about 6 individuals first 3 and then again 3. All of them were difficult to follow since they spent a lot of time under water but before each deep dive they surfaced 2-3 times giving us a chance to see them.

 

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafúlan: There were no puffins at Akurey so we headed out to Faxaflói looking for whales. Soon we spotted one minke whale and a nice one, surfacing many times so we could have a good look at it. A little bit further we spotted very briefly a small pod of harbour porpoises but they disappeared soon. So we kept on searching for whales but no luck until on the way back to the harbour we spotted the same minke whale again very close to the harbour. So, a good beginning and a good ending.

 

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: We started the trip with a stop on Akurey where the Puffuns stay during the summer. It's getting more quiet there every day now but we spotted some of them swimming around island. Out on the bay was rather difficult to begin with, it took us a very long time to find the White-beaked Dolphins we found pretty far out. They were very nice breaching out of the water only 3 meters away from the boat and then on the other side again and again only 10 meters away from us. On our way back we then spotted big blows from 2 whales and when we got to the area a surfaced several times but it was a rather difficult one.

 

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafúlan: It took us some time to find the whales today, and then finally we found some minke whales. In the beginning they were quite difficult to spot because they only surfaced once but then they changed their behaviour and surfaced more often so we could have a good look. At least three minke whales showed and many diving gannets. So, a very nice tour.