Saturday, 8 August 2015

Tour at 17:00

Report from Eldey: On the last tour of the day, we decided to head out straight to where a humpback whale was sighted before. It took quiet a while just to get to the area, but going there was definitely a good decision. Before we even reached the area of the humpback whale we saw a  minke whale traveling past the boat. But very quickly we kept on traveling out to reach our destination. And there it was, the humpback whale, which we stayed with as long as possible. We watched this amazing creature until we had to turn around again. On our way back we also managed to encounter two groups of white- beaked dolphins, with one pod coming up quiet close to and underneath the boat, as well as dolphins side slapping and jumping out of the water, amazing to watch. Estimating two pods with 10-14 individual of white- beaked dolphins.

- Michaela Buchbauer

Tour at 14:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The bad weather continued in the afternoon, with light rain and eastern winds. We searched for almost 1,5 hour before we finally found a humpback whale! The whale was busy feeding, only taking one breath between deeper dives. On the plus side that enabled us to see the fluke raised out of the water on more occasions than we could count. We spent a long time with this individual because both dolphins and minkes were difficult to find today. Sailing back went smoothly and another tour with humpback whale was at an end.

- Marcus Bergström 

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: This afternoon tour started rather similar to the morning one with the animals behaving very elusive. And still we managed to spot a group of white- beaked dolphins with around 4-5 individual. Straight after we got a nice few of a minke whale, which was traveling very fast across the bay, towards Akranes. We managed to spot this animal a few times until we had to turn back. Just before reaching the harbour, we managed to spot another pod of dolphins, with around 6 individual. Enjoying the view as long as we could was our main goal until we were turning the boat around to go back home.

- Michaela Buchbauer

Tour at 10:00

Report from Hafsúlan: This morning conditions were quite windy but with the wind coming from the east it was at our backs on the way out, making for a smooth cruise. Early on in the tour we spotted a pod of harbor porpoises, though they were quite elusive and we only saw them once or twice. We continued on and searched for quite a while far out into the bay for any signs of cetaceans. As we were turning back to land we then spotted a pod of 4-5 white-beaked dolphins! These individuals were quite excited and were leaping of our bow and swam very close to our boat, hopefully allowing our passengers to get a good photo of them. An excellent encounter to end the tour and we headed back to Reykjavík in good spirits.

- Ívar Elí

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: On this morning we went out from Reykjavik harbour in search of cetaceans. We traveled west for quiet a while, when we finally spotted a minke whale very close to our boat, coming towards us. Unfortunately the animal, even though very close, vanished as fast as it appeared leaving us waiting without any result. Since the animal was not encountered again we kept on going, looking for different animals, maybe even different species. We did manage to spot a pod of white- beaked dolphins with around 5 individuals. These animals behaved rather elusive, as did the minke whale beforehand, so we decided to offer our passenger complimentary tickets to try again, valid for 2 years.

- Michaela Buchbauer

Birds seen on todays tour: kittiwake, atlantic puffin, arctic tern, arctic skua, great skua, eider duck, black-backed gull, northern gannets, northern fulmars, manx shearwaters.