Saturday, 21 March 2015

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: the wind was getting much stronger than in the morning tour, we had not expected that because the according to the forecast for the day it was not supposed to get so windy until much later in the day. When we headed out on the bay we were sailing into the swells so the boat was rocking a lot up and down. The sky was dry for the most part but we went trough one hailstorm that reminded us that winter is not yet over. it felt much better after we turned around and started to sail with the wind and the swells  towards Reykjavík. We saw a glimpse of harbor porpoises for few seconds but they were very elusive and we could only see them popping out of the water few times. Unfortunately this was the only sighting of a cetacean on the tour and because of that we gave all of our passengers complimentary tickets. 

- Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan and Elding: Streets were buzzing with tourists this morning, we had so many joing us on our morning tour that we quickily made the decision to take out two boats too make the tour more comfortable. We traveled west in windy conditions and the sea state was also good. It was only after a 20-30 minute sailing that white-beaked dolphins were spotted. At first they were very difficult to show our passengers, they were only surfacing to breath periodically and very scattered. We were patient, however, and after a while they came together, a group of 6-8 individuals, surfacing slowly, relaxing after there energetic swimming to catch their dinner. Once we got some nice photographs we traveled further, many birds were actively feeding and optinism was high "there just had to be a whale here". we searched the area thoroghly no whales. Some passengers spotted a small group of 3-4 harbour porpoises but these were gone as soon as they arrived. Where are you Minke´s?

- Megan Whittaker

Birds seen on todays tour include: Black-backed gulls, iceland gulls, european shags, great cormorants, long-tailed ducks, eider ducks, northern fulmars, northern gannets, one great skua, razorbills, common guillemots and kittiwakes.