Saturday, 28 June 2014

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: The midnight sun that day was simply spectacular. Blue skies and mild winds were the conditions we sailed out at into the Bay of Faxafloí. Already near the lighthouse Grótta the first Minke Whale surfaced three times until it disappeared from view. We made our way further out into the bay and soon enough two other Minke Whales were sighted. The individuals swam slowly and surfaced almost simultaneously next to each other. They circulated around the vessel only diving for really short periods. I assumed both were resting. Then, suddenly, I saw this massive blow in the distance, followed by splashes that could be detected from far away. At one point a large body lifted itself out of the water and en enormous splash could be seen. Thus we made our way to this area as fast as possible. Arriving there, we didn´t spot the whale responsible for such aerobatic display, but rather found a 4-5 individuals strong pod of White-beaked Dolphins. The dolphins showed themselves interactive with the boat and surfaced close by and in the wakes of the boat for quite some time. One keen passenger then saw another large splash in the distance. Looking towards that direction, some of us could see again a large black body breaching. The captain and I clearly identified it as Humpback Whale, which are known for that behavior. As soon as we reached the area, however, the whale seemed to have disappeared. After searching for 25 minutes, we started heading back. Though, half way to the harbour we saw the splashes for another time and reversed immediately, just to find nothing but blue water and bright orange lid skies. A nice view after all, but not what we had hoped for. Nevertheless, the tour was amazing.

-Dominik Schmid

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The sea was so calm this afternoon and we only had to sail for about 30 minutes before we spotted the first Minke whale out of at least 11 different individuals that we saw! There was also alot of bird life in the area and most of the whales that we saw seemed to be feeding, one minke whale even rolled very close to the boat. We managed to see a few animals close to the boat as they seemed to be very calm around the boat. Not only did we manage to see and hear the minke's but also we could smell the horrible breath a couple of times! As we sailed back to the harbour we spotted a minke whale called Elephant and watched it surface a couple of times in the afternoon sun. It was a calm and nice tour in a beautiful weather.- Freydís Ósk Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: the life in the bay seemed to have slowed down a bit since the morning according to Hafsúlan. The first Minke Whale we saw was seen surfacing a few times but then we decided to leave it alone when we saw a small group of White-beaked Dolphins in a distance. We went there but they played hard to approach. Two Northern Gannets diving close by stole our attention (or that of the guide!) for a bit but then two further Minke Whales popped up through the calm surface. We enjoyed their presence a bit before the dolphins took over the show with a spectacular finale; many close approaches, swimming under us, towards us, lunging and so on. This has definetly been the day of the Dolphin!

- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsulan: This afternoon the clouds slowly moved in, but it was still dry and almost no wind. Early on in the tour we spotted 2-3 Minke Whales close by the Whalefjord. The individual traveled fast and so we decided to head out further and look for more interactive animals. Soon enough we were successful in seeing 4-5 Minke Whales surfacing in close proximity of the vessel. One individual was literally shooting out from the surface of the water, piercing though the water with their telescoped head, showing off their two blowholes clearly. After this very impressive encounter we looked for other cetaceans in the bay and were successful in finding 3-4 pods of White-beaked Dolphins. One of the dolphin pods interacted with our boat quite readily. They leaped and jumped in front of the vessel. For 5 minutes they were bow-riding. Due to the crystal clear water conditions, their bodies were visible even beneath the surface, resulting in many "Ahh"s and "Oh"s from our fascinated guests. On the way back we saw another 3-4 Minke Whales and 1 more pod of 5-7 dolphins. The perfect weather and the interactive cetaceans made this trip absolutely unique.

-Dominik Schmid

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: we first saw a small dolphin group that we lost sight of almost straight away so we decided to go out to Hafsúlan and see what they had. It was if Christmas had come earlier this year; the area was full of Minke Whales and White-beaked Dolphins. We started with the Minkes, one of which we idendified as 'Teddy', and then moved over to the Dolphins, which created quite a show for us as one lunged itself repeatedly into the air, by doing so presumably trying to drive fish towards its partners. Towards the end the Dolphins, having looked like they were trying to avoid us, showed us that they had anything but that in mind as they turned towards us and swam right in front of the bow and under us! Amazing!- Baldur ThorvaldssonTour at 9:00

Report from Hafsulan: The weather was simple amazing: calm and sunny. Initially, we spotted two White-beaked Dolphins, which accompanied us a fair bit out into the bay until we lost them. However, immediately after were spotting 5-6 Minke Whales all around us. The whales were travelling contently and surfaced repetitively close by the boat. One of these was identified as Humpie. Only minutes after the Minke Whale bonanza, several 4-5 pots of White-beaked dolphins appeared in front of us. They came up close to the boat and interacted with our and the other whale watching vessel. At one point a couple of the dolphins were leaping and breaching, joyfully interacting and showing off their white bellies. The water was so clear that you could make out the shape and path of these animals even beneath the water. When we headed back towards the harbour we viewed 3-4 Minke Whales. One surfaced as close as 50m from the boat, circulated around us and gave the researcher Jonathan the chance to identify the individual. It was called peanut and has been seen with our vessels since 2007. Overall, a whale of a tour.

-Dominik Schmid

Birds seen on todays tour include: Kittiwake, Northern Fulmar, Northern Gannet, Common Guillemot, Atlantic Puffin, Arctic Tern, Black-Backed Gull.