Sunday, 1 July 2012

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: We had to sail about half an hour in the amazing weather until we saw a huge flock of birds ahead. We headed towards them and they were there by the thousands. Of course we expected to see some whales there but none surfaced while we were there. We then headed further out and very soon we saw the first minke whale. After that, we did not move a lot but let the boat drift with more minke whales coming up to the surface around. After having spent a reasonable amount of time with these (there were probably about 8 of them) we started to head back again. Again we noticed a black area at the horizon. It turned out to be a flock of birds again. We headed there watching the group grow bigger and bigger. This time there was a minke whale close to the birds but soon, the birds stole all the attention since there were so many of them feeding on mackril right next to the boat. After the birds spread we headed back again and stopped at the puffin island which was full of puffins. This was an excellent but a rather unusual tour in great weather and calm seas!

Tour at 1700

Report from Hafsúlan: The whole day the whales were relatively close to the harbour and also on our evening tour we did not have to search long until we found the first minke whale. The sea was still absolutely calm, the whale very good to see and he surfaced several times. After a while we decided to go further on and we found another minke whale. Also this whale was good to see and again after a while we continued our journey. On this tour it was so easy to find the whales because there were so many minkes in the bay this evening. We saw some more individuals in the distance and finally a third individual closer to the boat. We were always searching for some other species in the bay and finally we found a group of white-beaked dolphins. They were swimming very fast but we were able to follow them. On our way back to the harbour we had beautiful evening sunlight and Reykjavík looked so nice in this special light.

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: Yet again we did not have to sail for a long time to spot our first minke whale of the tour! We saw at least three individuals in the area and we could get very close to one of them. After a while with the minke we saw some splashes in a distance! We had a large group of white-beaked dolphins! It was just amazing to see them jumping out of the  water and swimming just right in front of us and under the boat! They were all  very busy feeding, and we could see this amazing feeding behaviour as they were swimming very fast in the surface chasing fish. After a long time with the dolphins we had to go back home but on the way we were interrupted by a very nice minke whale! It was very nice to see these two species in such a nice weather!

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: On our midday tour we saw in total 5 minke whales. We spotted the first minke whale at the very beginning of our tour. We saw him very often surfacing and he was always relatively close to the boat. After a while we decided to go a little bit further out and there we found two more minke whales. They were travelling together and most of the time they surfaced at the same moment. This was really nice and we enjoyed it a lot. As we were already on our way back we saw two more minke whales and we stayed there for a while as well. It was a very nice "minke tour". Finally we stopped at the puffin island and we saw many puffins all around the island.

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: It was just a perfect whale watching weather this nice Sunday morning. We heard from other boats in the area that they had minke whales so we started to search very soon in our trip. We found few minke whales in the area but it was a bit difficult to approach them. After a while we found a very nice minke whale that was surfacing for a long time just right next to the boat! It was so beautiful to see it surfacing in the sun. We were using 3 senses as we were watching it, listening to it and even smelling it! A bit difficult morning that ended very well!

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed only a little bit out in the bay as we found our first minke whale on this tour. He was very close to the harbour and we stayed with him a while. We could see him very well and enjoyed him a lot. The sea was absolutely calm this morning and the sun was shining. After a while we decided to go further on. After a couple of minutes we found a second minke whale and we enjoyed him as well. We decided again to go further on and finally we found a third minke whale. This minke was the absolute highlight of our tour. He surfaced so close to the boat that we could see the whole body of the whale under the water. We saw his white flippers, we could even see his eye and all of us were simply speechless. The first time we saw him on the right side of the boat (only 2 meters away from us!) and then he came up again on the left side of the boat (maybe this time it was only 1.5 meters!) - it was absolutely special. There were some more minke whales a little bit farer from the boat so in total we saw 5 to 7 minke whales on our morning tour.