Saturday, 26 July 2014

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: The boat was sailing out showered in the warm sun rays of the midnight sun. Almost no cloud and wind made the trip very enjoyable weather wise. Really early in the tour we discovered a Minke Whale surfacing and changing directions frequently. The fishfinder on board hinted towards the whale being in pursuit of food as there was plenty close to the surface. After we had spend about 20 minutes with the whale and had him surfacing as close as 20 meters from the boat, we decided to head out further into the bay. Suddenly, a distinctly deformed fin attached to a large black back rose from the surface of the water. Instantaneously, I was able to identify the Minke Whale was Humpie, a whale we have seen in this bay every year since 2007. Humpie showed himself 5-6 times before it went for a deeper dive and repeated this behaviour several times, before we lost him in the sun´s glare of the red ignited midnight sun. All in all, a tour to remember.

-Dominik Schmid

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The weather this evening was just amazing, warm, sunny and no wind at all. We sailed for about 40 minutes untill we saw the first cetacean of the evening. It was a Minke Whale, first we thought it there was only one minke whale there, surfacing very frequntly but then suddenly we had two animals coming up to the surface on the same time just in front of the boat. We followed them for some time untill we noticed a group of 4-5 White-Beaked Dolphins about 700 meters away from us. We got closer to the dolphinns and followed them for some time. Then we wanted to keep heading further out and look if we could see more animals. It did not take us 15 minutes to spot another Minke Whale and that individual came very close to the boat! On the way back we saw the last Minke Whale of the tour, it just came up in front of us, we stopped for a minute and watched it travel further into the bay.

-Sigurlaug

Tour at 14:00Report from Elding: we enjoyed one Minke Whale for a while as we watched the whaling boat leave Hvalfjörður in a distance and head back out offshore for more hunting of Fin Whales. Then we went further out towards where Hafsúlan had had some more Minke Whales. Those had turned out to be a bit difficult ones but after while, once they were gone, we found an easy-going one that we spent some time with until the news came of a Basking Shark near another boat. We went there and maybe it was our old friend, the one we have been seeing quite frequently of late. Then we went back to Reykjavik while enjoying the incredible sunny views of the city and surrounding areas.- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The sea- and weather-conditions were wonderfully calm and sunny as we left for our afternoon tour at 13:00. And the weather turned out to be only one of the many amazing sights on this tour! For a start we encountered a fairly large pod of White-Beaked Dolphins - at least 8-10 individuals. We got some nice looks at their beautifully patterned sides as we followed them around. But after a while we decided to head further out, in search of something a bit larger. And we found at least 4-5 different Minke Whales over the next hour. One of them surfaced very close to our boat several times and as we were watching it one of our passengers launched a quadrocopter to film the animal from above. We were all well entertained by it flying around us and stopping over on our top deck once in a while. The highlight of this tour though must have been the Basking Shark we found towards the end. It was a very large individual that came right up to our boat. With the calm sea and perfect weather conditions we were able to see its entire head and widely opened mouth under water - an absolutely amazing sight!! After getting a couple incredible looks at this individual we unfortunately had to head back to Reykjavík, but no one seemed upset about the boat returning a little bit late! =))

- Linda

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: after yesterday's rainy day, today was a marvellous one, mostly sunny and we soon came across some Harbour Porpoises but did not stop for them as they tend to be elusive of boats, indeed they dived when we came and reappeared some distance from us. This was followed by 2-3 very difficult Minke Whales before we found a very laid back one further out. All in a very pleasant tour, although overshaddowed by watching one of the whaling boats sail towards Hvalfjörður to leave its catch at the whaling station there.- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan:  This morning was very beautiful, the sun came out between the clouds and the sea was as calm as it can get. We only had to sail for about 40 minutes before we spotted a group of 6-8 White-Beaked Dolphins. First when we saw them they were jumping into the air but when we got closer they calmed down and travelled slowly with/around the boat. We got a really good look at them and we could even spot a small calf in the group. We spotted another species in some distance from the dolphins, we decided to go and check that out and saw that it was a Minke Whale. It was probably feeding because it was changing directions often and circling in the same area for some time. After enjoying  a good time with that Minke we decided to head further out and check if we could find some more Cetaceans. It only took us 10 minutes to get to an area with two other Minke Whales, we got very lucky with one of them when it surfaced very close to the boat, not further than 15 meters!  We stopped the boat in this very lively area, we were surrounded with big flocks of sea birds, we had the Minke Whales on either side of the boat and then suddenly the dolphins that we had seen in the beginning of the tour joined us in the party. Incredible weather on the bay mate the sailing back to the harbour very enjoyable so over all this tour was just incredible.

- SigurlaugBirds seen on todays tour include: Atlantic Puffin, Northern Fulmar, Northern Gannet, Manx Shearwater, Arctic Skua, Arctic Tern, Eider Duck, Common Guillemot, Razorbill, Kittiwake, Black-Backed Gull, Storm Petrel.