Tour at 20:30
This evening the sky was cloudy and pouring rain but the sea was calm and the searching conditions were good. After our stop in puffin island Akurey we headed out on Faxaflói bay and searched for whales. We sailed for a long time without spotting any whales. There were some seabirds and even a couple of beautiful gannets, but they were not feeding. Al of a sudden we spotted the back of a minke whale, but unfortunately it was heading for a deep dive and didn't surface again. On our way back to the harbour we spotted a group of White beaked dolphins (3-4 animals). The were nice to watch, sometimes jumping out of the water. After a while they lost interest in us and headed away, further out on the bay, and we headed home.
Tour at 17:00
This afternoon tour we started out by heading straight to Akurey to see the Puffins. On our way there we spotted splashes from White-beaked Dolphins but when we got closer the Dolphins had left the area so we kept on. Next to the Island we also spotted some Gannets diving into the water. After stopping at Akurey we then headed out to Faxaflói bay. Out there we spotted several Minke Whales, one came really close to the boat few times and at one point we had at least 3 different Minke Whales around us. We also spotted 3 different pods of Harbour Porpoises. When we were getting closer to the harbour towards the end of the tour we then spotted the Baskin Shark again, a really nice ending to a great tour.
Tour at 14:00
Again we sailed out straight to Faxaflói and had to search for about 50 minutes before finding a Minke Whale. Close to them came up some Harbour Porpoises and we could see them surfacing a few times. Then we found some more minke whales but the minkes were a little difficult this tour so they came up a few times a little far away from us and then disappeared usually after a deep dive. Some of them were however nice to watch and we could actually see one of them surface feeding twice, coming up with big splashes on the surface! When we were starting to head back a passenger spotted White Beaked Dolphins and we could follow them for a while. On the way back we stopped by the Puffin Island Akurey and this afternoon there were not many puffins on the island. A successful tour!
Tour at 13:00
This tour we headed straight out to Faxaflói bay. We had heard news of the Basking Shark they had spotted on the 10 o'clock tour. We got to the area and there it still was. After looking at it for a while we headed further out where we spotted several Minke Whales. Out there we spotted also some Gannets that were diving down into the water, Guillamots and Puffins. Then on the way back we stopped by the Puffin Island Akurey where we watched the Puffins as well as some Artic Skuas, Kittiwakes, Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Artic Terns.
Tour at 10:00
We sailed straight out to Faxaflói and had to search for about 45 minutes until we spotted a Minke Whale in the distance. Then suddenly when we were waiting for the whale some White Beaked Dolphins came up quite close to us! We could follow them for a rather long time and they got so close to the boat that we could see them well under the water, the white sides of the dolphins very well visible under the surface. After we left the dolphins we could see more Minkes and one of them came very close to the boat but only once. When we were sailing back we saw a Minke in the distance and decided to take a look at that but then suddenly we saw a Basking Shark swimming extremely slowly in the surface! We could see it very well under the water, see the open mouth and the gills, and the nose and tail sometimes coming up to the surface. A great sighting! Then we stopped at the Puffin Island Akurey to see the puffins and there were quite many of them this time. A great tour!
Tour at 09:00
We started this week with a stop in Akurey to see the Puffins, among other birds we spotted around the island were Arctic Skuas, Eider Ducks, Kittiwakes, Lesser Black-backed Gulls. After looking at the birds we headed out. First we spotted two Minke Whale. They surface several times but were quite difficult, staying under water for rather long and only surfaceing 1-2 times. We then headed a bit on toward an area where we noticed some Gannets were diving. In that area we wound a great pod of White-beaked Dolphins. They came often up to the surface and were rather many togehter. On our way back to the harbour we spotted another Minke Whale that surfaced close to the boat several times and some Harbour Porpoises.