Saturday, 22 March 2014

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan and Elding: With the weather much the same as this morning we sailed out with high hopes after the previous tour. The excitement began early on when we spotted a Minke whale of our bow. What ensued was a bit of a chase, we saw minkes here and there with a good look here and there but mainly the were quite evasive. We soon decided to head further out and try our luck at the spot where we had seen the humpback earlier on. Fortunately for us we were not dissapointed. About 40 minutes on from our first encounter we spotted a massive blow and headed straight for it. We arrived in the area and slowed down to search for the owner of the large blow. Pretty soon he revealed himself and we spotted a Humpback whale! This individual was absolutely fantastic, he swam very slowly and very close to the boat. We got a look at his head as he came up to feed. his fluke(Tail) as he dived and he even waved to us with his pearly white pectoral fins as he rolled on the surface. There was a lot of birds and food in the area, which was most likely the reason for the calm behaviour. We even spotted another minke which was lunge feeding in the background. All in all a fantastic tour with amazing cetaceans!

- Ívar and Freydís

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan and Elding: The weather was beautiful today as we sailed from Reykjavík, there was blue sky and sunshine and the water was quite still. So in almost perfect conditions we sailed in high spirits. As we sailed west we came across several large flocks of Fulmars and Kittiwakes but there were no whales there so we continued searching and after just over an hour of sailing we spotted a blow in the distance. This was the blow of a Humpback Whale! As there were also lots of birds around the whale and it was taking frequent dives it was probably feeding here, and this was why it was so comfortable coming so close to both boats. Both Hafsúlan and Elding got a great look at the Humpback before we sailed on. And on the way back we found a Minke Whale too! Though as we had already been at sea for some time our look at this whale was short but sweet. It was a great tour and we hope the afternoon is just as good.

- Jack and Freydís

Birds seen on today's tour include: Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Gannets, Gloucous Gulls, Eider Ducks.