Saturday, 13 August 2011

Tour at 17:00

Report from Elding: We sailed out in a sunny but windy weather, again we found the minke whale really close to land between Engey and Viðey and also really close to Viðey or only maybe 5 meters away. It surfaced very close to the boat very calmly and all of a sudden it breached out with the belly up!! AMAZING and it did that 4 times again after that with pauses in between! And once it jumped out for us, very heavily though, it was a lot of Mackerel boiling in the surface all around and one group came really close to the boat and we could take a good look at it. We also visited the puffin island Lundey but there were no puffins to see they were all gone. After that we followed this beautiful and fun minke again for a while before heading home again. GREAT tour!!

 

Tour at 14:00 Report from Elding: In still fabulous weather we once more headed towards the Puffin island....and found a Minke whale really close to land, just between Engey and Viðey!! Probably our friend from the morning but it was really interactive this time, staying close for a long long time. A really tall animal, must have been about 9-10 metres long! After a while we visited the Puffins of Lundey and decided to return to the Minke near the island instead of venturing out into the stormy bay. Soon found it again and watched it for a bit before heading home. Also saw a lot of mackerel schools rippling the water. A very special tour close to the city with unbelievable views of whales in front of Reykjavík's skyline and the islands around us.

 

Tour at 13:00

It was a quite rough tour this afternoon. We started at the puffin island Lundey but very few puffins around. Out in Faxaflói in strong wind we were able to find an area with lots of diving gannets. But no sign of the whales. Suddenly two harbour porpoises surfaced two times 20 meters in front of our boat but only very few passengers were able to spot them. So, we offered all our passengers some complimentary tickets. Tour at 09:00: No whales on the morning tour unfortunately. We first headed to the Puffin island Lundey which was swarming with Puffins. Really good to see so many of them just a few weeks before the end of the Puffin season! Given the strong wind we decided to look for Minke whales closer to the shore and particularly for the one we saw so many times around Viðey and Engey. But the whale did not show up in the whole three hours. Instead we just enjoyed a nice cruise through the bay in the sunshine and some nice views on the skyline of Reykjavík from the sea.

 

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: A really beautiful sunny morning in Reykjavík! We headed out towards Puffin island Lundey. There were not as many Puffins as on other days on the island, the Puffin season is slowly getting towards the end this year. However, lots of other seabirds, even a cormorant! We received news of a Minke whale near the Puffin island but when we arrived at the spot, it had just dived away. Out in the bay, it was a bit more windy but far out we found three massive flocks of Gannets, plunging into the stormy seas for fish. This seemed like a whales' heaven and we were not disappointed. 6 Minke whales really close the boat, circling us, coming 1m close, diving under the boat in the middle of the Gannets shrieking and diving. AMAZING!!

 

Tour at 09:00 Report from Hafúlan: We headed out in a sunny weather this morning again. We still spotted the schools of Mackerel in the bay again and five minutes later we spotted a Minke Whale really close to land. We could follow this whale for some time and saw it surfacing really often and close to the boat. The highlight this morning was the Minke Whale breaching close to the boat - just amazing! Then we went to Lundey and spotted some puffins on the island. Later on we spotted the Minke Whale again and even a pod Harbour Porpoises crossed our path. Great tour! Sunday, 14 August 2011