Saturday, 1 November 2014

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: the second tour of November was better than the first one thanks to a delightful pod of 10-15 white-beaked dolphins that we came across roughly north-west of Akranes. First we saw 2-3 and their zig-zagging behavour indicated that they were on the trail of some fish. We spent a bit of time with them but when another whale-watching boat came, and we spotted some more dolphins in a little distance, we decided to leave those with the other boat and head for the newly-found ones. It was a truly great afternoon spent in the presence of this mainly sub-Arctic species, on which they would often approach the boat and swim under it in their fish chase as well as jump out of the water as part of their herding behavior. A few harbour porpoises also showed themselves shortly. So many close encounters that built up more confidence for November!

- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Report from Elding: We also decided to take some of our passengers to Grindavik where our other vessel was docked. At no extra cost we took 40 passengers to Grindavik to see what was going on there. Our first sighting was of a large pod of Harbour Porpoises, probably 10-15 all in all, with a couple stragging behind the others. These were sighted just 15 minutes about from leaving the harbour. Then after another 30 minutes we spotted a Humpback Whale, just 100 meters in front. It appeared out of nowhere, showing it´s back and dorsal fin. We waited for it to surface again and it didn´t look to have gone on a deep dive. We waited and waited, waited for about 30 minutes but no signs of it again. A very grumpy humpie. Most likely resting just below the surface and did not want to be disturbed, so we sailed off to hopefully find something else. No more encounters from cetaceans but we got a lovely view of the landscape, sunset and the seabirds flying past. A lovely day to be on the sea. We hoped for a more productive tour but nature is nature and so we offered our passengers a complimentary ticket to join us again in the next 2 years.

-Megan Whittaker

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: the first whale-watching tour in the month of November was greeted with strong north-eastern winds coming full force out of the mouth of Hvalfjörður fjord, which ensured a rocky journey most of the time. We sailed far and wide on this tour but there was just so much wind and so many white tops on the water that it was next to impossible to see if anything might be moving through the water. As a result, this became a non-sighting tour and so complimentary tickets were given. But as we say here in Iceland, 'Fall er fararheill'. Essentially this saying means that bad luck at the start of a journey means good luck for the rest of it. Today was not only the start of November but also the offical start of the winter season. Hopefully we will be looking at much better tours ahead of us for the rest of the year.

- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Birds seen on today's tour include: Northern gannets, black-backed gulls, glaucous gulls, herring gulls, iceland gulls, eider ducks, kittiwakes, black guillemot, common guillemot, razorbills, Shags and Cormorants.