Sunday, 15 May 2011

Tour at 13:00

The wind had calmed down even more on this tour but it was still pretty cold. We headed straight out into Faxaflói and after about 40 minutes it was a Minke Whale that found us. It surfaced 60 meters in front of our vessel. It didn't want to stay long but we did get a great view of it. After about another 10-20 minutes we came across an area where there were two Minke Whales and a small pod of Harbour Porpoises. We followed one and it was amazing surfacing less than 100 meters from our boat and many times too. Eventually they went into stealth mode and it was hard to find them again. We saw a large flock of birds (mainly Gulls, Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Guillemots, Puffins and a couple Gannets and Arctic Skuas) in the distance and thought there may be something with them as the fish that attracted the birds may also attract the whales and we were right as 300-400 meters away a Minke Whale surfaced. We slowly got a bit closer and once again a great sighting. On our way back to land to go and see the Puffins we were lucky to see another 3 Minkes and a small pod of Harbour Porpoises. There was also a lot of Puffins at home on their island. Excellent tour!!

 

Tour at 9:00

The day started quite cloudy and with a cold wind from the West but all in all, it was ok. We started the tour at Akurey Puffin Island and saw Puffins, Gulls, Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Eider Ducks, Cormorants and some Brent Geese. We sailed into Faxaflói Bay for about 30 minutes before on the passengers spotted our first Minke Whale, we tried to get closer but the whale always went away from us so we just let the whale be and sailed further out. It wasn't long until we came across a small pod of Harbour Porpoises which were surfing the swells and coming quite close to the boat (20-30 meters). We then headed towards a couple of flocks of seabirds which is where we were rewarded with the company of about 3 Minke Whales and another small pod of Harbour Porpoises as well as the birds. The whales were quite far from each other but the one that we followed surfaced close, within 100 meters and many times too so that the passengers got get a great view. Excellent tour!