Saturday, 29 June 2013

Tour at 20:30 Report from Elding: The weather just kept getting better and finally the sun was shining on us when we headed out tonight. We wanted to try our luck with the humpback whale from the previous tour. We headed to the area where it was seen last. We saw lot of feeding seabirds around and then we spotted minke whales. They were actively feeding, rolling in the surface, lunge feeding and surfacing all around us. We were surrounded by minke whales! Later we saw a big blow in a distance and headed straight to that area. After a long time searching we headed to another area as we had no luck with the humpback, but still the encounter with the minke whales was incredible! We ended the tour in Lundey and had some nice live music on the way back home.

-Sveinn Guðmundsson

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: When we headed out for today's evening tour, the sea was still perfectly calm and even though it was a bit clouded, the sun blinked through here and there. Again, it did not take us long  until we spotted a Minke Whale surfacing not very far from the harbor. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing between 5 and 8 individuals surfacing around us some showing up just about 30 meters away from our boat. Then, some sort of gut feeling told us that it might be worth to travel a bit further and watch out for something else. We were very pleased to see the flippers of a Humpback Whale slapping on the water just five minutes later - awesome!!!:) The whale seemed to be very playful and as if it was not enough it started breaching and jumping about 15 times in total. Then, when we thought the show was over, it surprised us again with a behaviour called lobtailing. It came out of the water with its fluke and subsequently heavily flapped it on the water surface. The humpy repeated this amazing behaviour about 20 times and breached a couple of times in between - can a tour get any better? Visiting the puffin island Akurey in the evening sun on our way back to Reykjavik was definately a wonderful round-up for this outstanding tour!

- Hendrik Schultz

Tour at 14:00 Report from Elding: What an amazing tour! We started the tour by visiting Lundey. After that we only had to sail for few minutes until we saw our first minke whale. There were lot of birds in the area and soon we noticed more minkies in the area. Some of them were lunge feeding, other rolling in the surface and everywhere we looked we saw minke whales. Really magnificent tour. 

-Sveinn Guðmundsson

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: In the afternoon, the sea was still perfectly calm and we decided to head directly towards where we had seen the Minke Whales during the first tour of the day. The sea was crowded with bird life and we were optimistic to spot whales in these waters rich in fish. Indeed, it did not take us long until we spotted the first Minke Whale and from this moment on, more and more individuals were showing up in the distance in all directions. Since the sea was super calm, we even turned the engine off to enjoy the sounds of nature and were able to see Kittiwakes that were feeding on tiny fish all around our boat. We ended the tour visiting Lundi, the puffin island where we enjoyed watching the Atlantic Puffins also called the "penguins of the north" and listening once more to another set of nature's sweet sounds.

- Hendrik Schultz

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: When we headed out from Reykjavik's harbour this morning, the sea was perfectly calm and the sky evenly overkast, providing perfect whale watching conditions. On our way out, we first stopped at Akurey, a small island in front of Reykjavik, where the Atlantic Puffins breed on. There were many of these charismatic birds around sitting either on the water or on the island. When we were just about to head further out into the bay, our captain already spotted the first Minke Whale, which was feeding uncommonly close to the harbour. While enjozing it surfacing for several ties, we spotted more and more individuals (about 5 to 10 in total). Later in the tour, we were surprised by a pod of 4 to 6 White-beaked Dolphins that approached our boat and started jumping several times as if they had excess energy to give away - Thank you sweet dolphins for the nice show!

- Hendrik Schultz

Birds seen on today's tours: Atlantic Puffins, Kittiwakes, Manx Shearwaters, Arctic Terns, Arctic Skuas, Eider Ducks, Cormorants, Black-backed Gulls