Saturday, 09 August 2014

Tour at 17:00

This tour has unfortunately been cancelled due to unfavourable weather in the bay. Please do not hesitate to contact us through elding@elding.is or on +(354) 519 5000 if you have any questions or concerns.

Tour at 14:00Report from Elding: we went the same route towards Akranes as this morning but then turned out into the bay. We searched amidst the white tops until captain Hermann spotted a blow from a minke whale. We saw this individual two or three times before losing it. A few minutes later we saw another one and managed to see it a few times but we are not sure whether it was the same individual or not. Once it was gone (too, if it was different individuals) we were stationary until some passengers as well as our researcher Céline spotted a few white-beaked dolphins. This was a pod of perhaps 3-5 and we got some close approaches but then they too vanished. Another similarily small pod appeared enroute back home but only for a few minutes. Unfortunately this tour did not present us with as good sightings as this morning but we still managed fine given the conditions.- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The weather and sea condition situation was almost the same on this tour like on the 9 o'clock trip except that most of the clouds disappeared. Being successful on the first tour we took the same course again and while talking about that we were searching for birds, we discovered a huge flock of black-backed gulls together with some fulmars close by shore. No cetacean were around them so we continued out towards the place of the feeding whales from before and not to far away from there we found more and more gannets. As they started diving down like torpedo a blow appeared between them. It was quite difficult to look at the right time at the right spot but twice this minke whale showed even its white pectoral flipper and its arched back and several times just the dorsal fin. Once we smelled the "stinky-minke" as the wind blew its breath in our direction.

- Carine Zimmermann

Tour at 10:00Report from Elding: the strong north-northwestern wind made us go first towards Akranes to search for whales but then we got a call from Hafsúlan that they had white-beaked dolphins. The problem was though that they were much further out. We still took a turn towards their location but once we had arrived there, after a journey that took us a while because of the wind, the dolphins were gone. Hafsúlan went home but we continued searching, which yielded us with at least 3 different minke whales close by, feeding in an area that the fishfinder told us had a lot of fish in, in the company of the highlight of the tour, possibly the greatest number of northern gannets that I have seen diving in the same spot in a long time.- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The cloud cover broke up so that the sun was finally shinning on us and more and more blue sky was seen. Strong northeasterly wind was turning the ocean surface quite white so we were navigating in the shelter of mount Esja along the coast towards Akranes, then we turned with the wind and the swell and it felt warm and calm but as soon as we changed the direction it was similar like on a roller coaster. Then we managed to find a group of 4 white-beaked dolphins which behaved calm and were travelling very slow. We observed the 3 adults and the juvenile several times and saw them quite well before we lost them out of sight. We continued out into the moved bay were we found feeding gannets and in between them minke whales. First we saw one but with the time we found out that there were several of 3 or possibly 4 whales. Because once they emerged almost at the same time in 2 different directions of the boat. So despite the difficult conditions we were very lucky to be able to see so much.

- Carine Zimmermann