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Saturday, 17 August 2013

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan:It was still windy as we set out this afternoon. Disappointed after the last tour, we decided to try our luck in a new area this time. It started out slowly but then the captain spotted some diving northern gannets that we decided to take a closer look at. We had hit jackpot! There was a lot of fish to be seen on the fish finder and plenty of birds. All of a sudden the minke whales started to surface. There must have been around 5 or 6 of them feeding around us and one of them came very close to the boat. We even spotted a mother with a tiny calf a few times. The wind calmed down again and the sun was still shining. Good tour in good weather conditions with great, active passengers and some very nice minke whale sightings.

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 14:00Report from Elding: the wind had picked up a bit when we headed out but we started our tour in Engey, one of the puffin islands were we saw many puffins flying around us and sitting on the ocean. After an hour searching for whales we finally spotted a Minke Whale, but it was in big hurry and we didn't get a good look at it. But soon after we got another chance when the second Minke appeared, but unfortunately like the other one this one swam quickly away and it was hard spotting it. The weather forecast had predicted that the weather wouldn't change but the waves had gotten bigger and the sea was a bit rough although the sun was shining. Soon our time was up and we had to head back to the harbour, but because we weren't happy with our sightings in this tour, the Minke's were elusive and hard to spot. We decided to give all of our passengers complementary tickets because of pour sightings ad rough seas and hopefully they will have better weather and better luck next time ! - Freydís Ósk Hjörvarsdóttir

 

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: It had become quite windy as we left the harbour in Reykjavík. We were hoping to find the feeding minkes from this morning again but had no luck to begin with. For almost two hours, we sailed around the bay only to find a few northern gannets and fulmars but no whales. All the food from this morning seemed to have disappeared. What a disappointment. As we were about to give up hope we got a radio transmission from another whale watching boat that had seen blows. We went to take a look and there was a sneaky minke whale that surfaced a few times but sadly did not show off a lot. We did not see anything on the way back so although the weather and visibility were good on this tour, the sightings were rather poor.

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 10:00Report from Elding: The weather was just gorgeus as we headed out this morning, the sun was shining and almost clear skies but still a little wavy further out on the ocean. We started the tour with a visit to Engey, one of the Puffin Islands were we saw alot of Puffins, although the puffin season is over. We headed further out and searched for around 40 minutes before we spotted out first Minke Whale. It surfaced a couple of times before we decided to head to another spot because there were 3 boats around this whale and we didn't want to disturb it to much. We weren't disappointed on our decision to go somewhere else because very soon we spotted two more Minke's and one of them surfaced three time only 10-15 meters away from the boat and gave us a perfect ending to the tour. Fun tour with the Minke's and it's obvious that the life in Faxaflói bay is picking up! - Freydís Ósk Hjörvarsdóttir

 

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Report from Hafsúlan: It was calm as we sailed out onto the Faxaflói bay this morning. Thus began the search for whales but we had no success for the longest time. There were few birds and apparently not much to eat. But after having seen only a few blows and a dorsal fin once or twice in the distance the wind picked up and we decided to sail further out. That‘s when we finally found what we had been looking for. Lots of birds and fish on the fish finder and finally we got to see several minke whales feeding. One even rolled over in the surface, showing of its white belly! Soon after, we had to turn around to Reykjavík and unfortunately, on the way back, some passengers got sea sick. All in all it was a beautiful sunny day with great visibility and some good sightings.

-Arnór Tumi

 

Birds seen on today's tours include: Puffins, common guillemots, northern gannets, lesser black backed gulls, eider ducks, fulmars, kittiwakes and arctic terns.