Sunday, 2 september 2012

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: we came across a reasonable number of Minke Whales on this tour. Some seen in a far distance but 2-3 rather close to the delight of the passengers onboard. The first Minke was a good one but then it dived down and disappeared. Not long after we came across a nice, small pod of White-beaked Dolphins (6-8) but, unlike those we saw in the morning, this pod kept a good distance, never came close and then suddenly disappeared. Somewhat disheartened, a Minke Whale came out of the blue and decided to play with us a bit to make up for the disappearing of his smaller relatives. Then it too went off. We saw the odd Minke Whale for the next half an hour until we came across one that went as close to spyhopping as possible. Indeed it did everything except the essential component, lifing its head out of the water. It surfaced time and time again with very, very short intervals, showing a lot of itself. We were the only whale-watching boat around and it may have made it easier to approach him, he may have been curious about us as a result. We tried to leave as we were running out of time but it wouldn't let us, surfacing again and again. In the end we had to go. On the way to Reykjavik we caught a short glimpse of some Harbour Porpoises but they were off almost straight away though.

Tour at 13:00

Report from Elding: this was an acceptable tour at best. There can be no complaint about the number of Minke Whales we saw. Indeed we saw no fewer than 4 and perhaps 5-6 rather. However, each was only seen about two times or so, then they all went for a deep dive and disappeared into the deep blue. Of course we understand that they may not always be up for showing themselves but it would have been nicer to see one or two of them for a little while longer. Still, the people went happy from the ship and that is what counts.

Tour at 13:00Report from Hafsúlan: The wind had calmed down a bit since this morning and the sun was shining this afternoon in Faxaflói. We had to sail for a while before we spotted the first whale of the tour, then we saw a Minke Whale. It was not the only Minke in the area, in total we had at least four Minkes there in the same area and we got a good look at three of them when they came guite close to the boat. They were though a bit tricky, surfacing not very often and diving for long. After getting a good look at these Minkes we sailed on but without luck and in the end we had to turn back to Reykjavík. The sailing back was lovely, the wind in the back and the sun shining.

Tour at 09:00Report from Hafsúlan: We headed out to the bit windy Faxaflói bay this morning but when you can have a warm overall and a seasickness pill there is no need to worry! We sailed quite far before we spotted our first specie of the tour, then we saw two Minke Whales in the same area. They were a bit tricky, coming few times to the surface and then diving for a long time. Then we spotted a pod of White Beaked Dolphins jumping out of the water in the distance so we left the Minke Whales to get a better look at the dolphins. These turned out to be very friendly and playful dolphins, when we were getting closer we could see there hole bodies as they jumped out of the sea! When we got closer they came swimming to us, coming very close and we could see their bodies clearly as they swam under the boat few times. In the end it was time to head back to Reykjavík after this lovely encounter and on our way back we spotted a small pod of Harbour Porpoises so all in all we saw three species on this trip!

Birds seen on todays tours: Black Backed Gulls, Northern Gannets, Fullmars, Greylag Goose, Razorbills, Shaqs and more