SATURDAY, 22 August 2015

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: After this very amazing morning and afternoon tour we decided to head straight out to the area where the pilot whales were spotted last. On our way we were very fortunate, encountering 3 minke whales after another. For the first animal we quickly stopped to have a closer look at it. Not a long time later we continued our trip to find the group of whales, and then finally there they were, a group of around 40-50 pilot whales!!! Everyone enjoyed watching this large pod of cetaceans travel west, not just passengers, also the crew was hypnotized by this very rare encounter in the Faxaflói bay. We made lots of pictures and stayed with them for a while until we had to turn around, slowly starting our way back to the harbour. Again, on the way we spotted at least 3 more minke whales. The last animal was even surfacing very close to the boat, giving us a great look at it just before we had to go home.

- Michaela Buchbauer

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We were full of expectation after the awesome morning tour. So out we went at full steam. We arrived in to the area where the pilot whales were last spotted. Unfortunately we couldn't see them. But then we had 2 minke whales being very elusive. We stayed with these animals until we got a good look. After that we had a report from another boat that the pilot whales had been spotted again. There was some of the original pod missing, only about 30-40 individuals. How lucky we were!!! Soon we had to go back to the harbour. Truly amazing day! Now to celebrate culture weekend!

-Tommy Torrades 
 

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The wind had calmed down a lot from this morning and the conditions for whale watching were almost perfect with a very flat sea. We were excited about this tour because we knew there were pilot whales in the bay and we were really hoping to find them again. After about 40 minutes of sailing we got the good news from Rósin, another whale watching boat that they had found the pod of pilot whales again. We were jumping out of joy but when we were getting closer to the pod of pilot whales we encountered a minke whale really close to the boat. We decided to stay with this animals for a while and the passengers got to see this animal very well before we moved closer to the pod of pilot whales. When we came up to this big pod of pilot whales, estimated to be around 60-100 individuals, they really put on a show for us. They were spy-hopping as they brought their head and upper part of their body out of the water, tail-slapping and leaping out of the water. This was just amazing to watch and we stayed a while with this pod before we moved on. We decided to head further out west as we knew that there was a lot of bird life in that direction. On our way west we spotted a pod of harbour porpoises, maybe 3 individuals, but this pod was elusive so we kept on going. After some time of sailing we encountered a minke whale pretty far from the boat and then another one quite closer to the boat. We had the opportunity to stay a while with these individuals as they were surfacing frequently. This tour couldn't have been better with the rare sightings of a big pod of pilot whale and some awesome behavior from the animals. 

- Katrín Björnsdóttir

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: Light rain and wind made the conditions further out in the bay quite difficult for finding the whales today. After 50 minutes of sailing we got information of something rare! The guide had to ask the captain if he had heard right on the radio, it surely was true... Our boat Hafsúlan had found a pod of PILOT WHALES! A large pod of these charming cetaceans were feeding in a small area. We estimated the number of individuals to between 60-100 whales. It was so amazing to see this large pod so closely together, surfacing only centimeters from each other. It really showed how social these animals are. We left the pilots with a smile on our faces and started searching for other species. Unfortunately no other cetacean was seen on this tour, but the pilot whales really made up for it and we return happily to harbour.

- Marcus Bergström    

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: There were clouds hanging above Faxaflói bay. But with little wind it was ideal conditions for whale watching. We had hoped to see our four common species, but weren't prepared to see a large pod of 60 pilot whales!!!  What an amazing encounter. I couldn't stress how lucky we were. We had these awesome animals by us for quite a while. We eventually left them to their own devices as we continued our search. We then came across 3 minke whales. One of which had a large blow that almost convinced us that there was a humpback near us. As we turned back to the harbour we had grins from cheek to cheek!

-Tommy Torrades
 

Bird species seen on today´s tours: northern fulmars, northern gannets, kittiwakes, lesser black-backed gulls, Atlantic puffins, arctic skuas, arctic terns, common guillemots and manx shearwaters.