Sunday, 10 August 2014

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Even during the evening hours the area around Grindavik was calm and pleasant to sail in. Similar as what had been seen on earlier tours this day, the Northern Gannets were showing an amazing display of their hunting technique - plunging down deep into the water from up to 30 m height. Sadly enough, the only Minke Whale was seen towards the end of the tour. The individual seemed elusive and only showed itself briefly. However, the absolutely phenomenal sunset - an explosion of pink, purple, orange and yellow - on the way back to Grindavik and with the bus back to Reykjavik partially made up for the lack of whales. In the end we still offered all passengers a complimentary ticket, which will grant them another whale-watching trip with us within the next two years.

-Dominik Schmid

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: unfortunately the sea conditions in Faxafloi is not good so instead we are taking our passengers that choose to join the 17:00 tour in Grindavik, which is located on the other side of the reykjanes peninsula. Sorry for any inconvienence, please contact us on 519 5000 or email us at elding@elding.is.

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: It was getting windier but still not so cold when we sailed out from Grindavík on the south part of Reykjanes peninsula. We started to sail far south but then decided to head east and closer to land. We had been sailing for over a hour with no sighting of whales but while we searched for them we could enjoy the birdlife and the beautiful landscape of the big cliffs called Krísuvíkurbjarg. While we sailed past these magnificent cliffs we suddenly noticed that we had company, one minke whale! The whale was swimming alongside with the boat in about 400 meter distance! This minke whale was really calm and was travelling in circles in that area for a long time and came very frequently up to the surface to breath. It was not hard to follow this calm individual especially because the sea conditions were really good. We stayed with that minke whale until we were running out of time and had to start heading back to Grindavík.

- Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Tour at 10:00Report from Hafsúlan: we sailed out of Grindavik today due to strong northern wind that prevented Hafsúlan from sailing in Faxaflói Bay. We started off by sailing to the west, saw the magnificent island of Eldey in a distance and some of its famous inhabitants, the Northern Gannets, diving for fish around us. We also had a number of small fishing boats fishing for mackereal close to the mouth of the harbour. After a while, we turned offshore and then back towards land, looking a bit to the east before heading back to Grindavik. All along we had some lovely birdlife and magnificent scenery of the lava and the mountains onshore but unfortunately no whales. This is unfortunate; Grindavik has been one of our hotspots for various species in the past, including Orcas; but there as in Reykjavik the days are different and this is nature after all. All passengers were offered a complimentary ticket as a result that allow them but come back on another whale-watching trip with us within the next two years.- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Tour at 09:00

Report from Elding: The morning was quite windy and rocky out at the bay of Faxafloí. Nevertheless, already early in the tour we spotted a pod of white-beaked dolphins. The 3-4 individuals kept their distance however, until suddenly, 2 of the dolphins separated from the group and actively swam towards our vessel. Both dolphins were playing in the wake of the boat, but even remained in a radius of 10m to the boat, when we turned off the engine. This behaviour is seen only in rare incidents, but I assumed that there was more to it than simple curiosity. So when I asked the captain about the results from the fish finder, he was telling me that a large school of fish had been hiding just beneath the boat. Minutes later the dolphins then took off in a different direction. But we had already spotted a larger group (6-7) white-beaked dolphins in the distance and some of them were breaching sideways. It was an amazing spectical, best observed from the distance as these dolphins had sometimes shown to stop such beautiful displays upon approach. Later one we encountered another 2 small pods of dolphins, before we made for the harbour. What a nice start into this magical day.

-Dominik Schmid