Saturday, 05 September 2015

Tour at 17:00

Report from Eldey: We sailed out from Hafnarfjörður again but this time ended our tour in Reykjavik. While sailing out on the bay we headed into the swells so our boat was rocking up and down. It was also raining in the beginning of the tour which made it also a bit more difficult to look for animals while heading into the wind. When we got to our main sighting areas we found many birds diving down for food which is a good sign when searching for whales. In that area we saw three minke whales, they were all quite elusive and each of them we only saw 3-4 times. On our way back to land we saw three pods of white beaked dolphins, in all about 20 individuals. Two of these pods started to bow ride and followed us for some time which made a perfect end to our tour.

-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: We started the tour once again from Hafnarfjörður. The conditions remained the same with rain and western winds. We scouted towards the southwest in shelter from the Reykjanes peninsula. We sailed almost to the tip of the peninsula close to Garður lighthouse, without seeing any whales or dolphins. We had a lot of seabirds joining us so we had something to look at. This was just one of those tours and we arrived back in Hafnarfjörður without a whale encounter. We of course offered all passengers a complimentary ticket, so they can join us another day for a whale watching tour with hopefully more whales and dolphins. Lets hope for better weather tomorrow!

- Marcus Bergström  

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: We decided to start the day from Hafnarfjörður due to western winds, causing high swells. We headed out in light rain and an overcast sky. We made good use of our overalls that we offer all passengers onboard. We sailed for a long while searching close to the coast but couldn't find any whales. Towards the end of the tour we got news that another whale watching boat had found a minke whale. On location the whale showed itself a couple of times but it was hard to spot in the swells. When we lost the minke we suddenly had a small pod of 2-3 harbour porpoises close to the boat. Some short views of these small cetaceans and then they were gone again. The highlight of the tour must have been the Great Shearwater that flew by the boat half way into the tour, making the guide jump of excitement due to seeing a new bird species! We were out of time and had to head back towards Hafnarfjörður. Because of the bad views of the animals we offered complimentary tickets valid for a whale watching tour with us within the next two years.

- Marcus Bergström   

Bird species seen on today's tours include: northern gannets, northern fulmars, lesser and greater black-backed gulls, Manx shearwater, Great shearwater, European storm-petrel, common guillemots, Atlantic puffins, razorbills and kittiwakes.