Sunday, 15 June 2014

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: The first midnight tour of the summer was conducted tonight! It was cloudy this evening so unfortunately we didn't get a look at the midnight sun, but still the weather was calm and nice although it rained a little bit during the tour. We spotted 3-4 Minke whales in the tour but it wasn't until we saw the last two when we got a very good sighting. The first minke's seemed to be in a hurry and only surfaced 1-2 times before they disappeared. As we sailed around we spotted a flock of birds and around them, two more minke whales. They were obviously feeding and we even saw them bubble feeding at one point! They surfaced around us and sometimes very close to the boat. We did not only manage to see them close up and hear them but also one of them had a horrible fishy breath which we could smell for a couple of times! On our way back to the harbour Eiríkur the musician played his guitar and sang songs and kept us entertained. It was a good tour in a calm weather, although the midnight sun wasn't visable the minke sightings and their bad breath as well as the good music on our way back made the tour very enjoyable.-Freydís Ósk

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Once again the clouds rolled in and covered most of the landscape that we love to see, it was quite amusing that the only blue sky we had was a small patch over Reykjavík, which result in a couple of nice pictures. We sailed offshore and it took us a bit long to find the whales this evening. It was actually a call we got from another whale watching boat that alerted us of a whale. We headed over and watching this one Minke Whale for over 20 minutes, it surfaced close a couple of times but it was really nice to watch surface slowly, completely at easy with our presence. We left this whale after a time and found another minke whale surfacing close to a big flock of resting puffins and other auks, this one only surfaced a few times before diving down and not surfacing again in our vicinity. A small pod of 2-3 Harbour Porpoises was also encountered and a nice sail home through the calm waters.

- Megan

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The rain had stopped and it looked like it was clearing up this afternoon. Right outside the harbour we saw a Basking shark which surprised us amazingly! The animal was just beautiful (in it's special way of course) and it was very calm around the boat and we got a perfect view at the animal as it swam right up to the boat and we could see it's whole body and it's big open mouth as it was filter feeding in the surface! As we sailed further out we spotted around 4 Minke whales. They seemed all to be in a bit of a hurry as they surfaced quickly and then took long deep dives. The last minke we saw allowed us to get a better look at it as it surfaced close to the boat for a couple of times. It was a good tour which was definately topped by the beginning sighting of the great basking shark ! - Freydís ÓskTour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The weather had improved a little this afternoon and even though the skies threatened rain it did stay dry throughout the tour. 30-40 minutes sailing offshore we saw our first Minke Whale of 4-6 others that we saw. However, they kept their distance from us today and went for long dives but the passengers got to see them well eventually. We also saw 4-6 pods of Harbour Porpoises, probably 20-30 porpoises all in all. A bit of a difficult tour but in the end we had a fantastic sighting of a Basking Shark, second largest fish in the world.

-Megan

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: It was cloudy and a bit rainy as we headed out this morning. After about 30 minutes sailing we spotted out first Minke whale. As we scanned the area we could see that there were alot more animals around us, probably 8-10 minke whales. They surfaced slowly around us and some very close to the boat. The minke's seemed to be feeding as they took long deep dives and constantly changed directions. While we were waiting for the minke's to surface again we also saw a pod of 4-6 Harbour porpoises that surfaced quickly infront of the boat. We had to show alot of patience in this tour, but in the end it was a good tour. - Freydís Ósk

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The weather was quite miserable this morning, overcast skies, low visibility and heavy rain. The good news is that marine life don´t mind this. We had a wonderful tour with 4-6 Minke Whales, two of which we could recognise as Humpie (seen since 2011) and Midi (seen since 2008). We also saw quite a few Harbour Porpoises, maybe 5-10 in total as well as countless sea birds, highlight always being the puffin.

- Megan

Birds seen on today´s tour include: Fulmars, Nothern Gannets, Guillemots, Razorbills, Kittiwakes, Arctic terns, Puffins, Manx shearwaters, Black-backed gull, Eider-ducks & Storm petrel.