Sunday, 5 May 2013

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsulan: In the afternoon, the wind had strengthened a bit, but the weather was still good. Since we had seen many Minke Whales and porpoises in the morning, we decided to directly go back to the area where this morning´s feeding frenzy had taken place. However, even though we were thoroughly scanning the area, we were not able to find the Minke Whales again.

After quite some time of sailing and patient scans of the water surface, we spotted a couple of Harbour Porpoises, which instantly went for a dive unfortunately so that we were not able to show them to all of our passengers. Time was running late and we were almost giving up hope when we found a group of White-beaked Dolphins! It was a group of at least 4 individuals that changed direction very frequently, but we had passengers with very good spotting skills onboard today, what really helped us to spot the beautiful dolphins.

It was also one of our passengers, who spotted a second group of White-beaked Dolphins when we were already starting to head back to Reykjavik. This second group behaved curiously and playful and a couple of individuals (out of 4 to 6 in this group) approached our boat several times so that we could see their bodies shimmering below the surface - a wonderful encounter that definately made our afternoon!

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsulan: This morning, we started sailing from Reykjavik harbour under ebautiful weather conditions. The sky was blue and there was only a gentle breeze blowing and we were very optimistic to spot some whales. After just half an hour of sailing, we spottet several groups of shy Harbour Porpoises that went for a dive as we came closer. However this changed completely when we spotted more porpoises (we saw between 20 and 30 in total) that were feeding within a flock of feeding birds. The porpoises were obviously feeding and did not seem to mind us watching them. Just a short moment later, a large Minke Whale joined the scenery.

Suddenly, we found ourselfes within a feeding frenzy with more porpoises and Minke Whales (in total 4 to 6 individuals) surfacing in the closer area around our boat. One Minke surfaced very close to the boat several times so that we could cleary hear its blow and our passengers were able to take nice pictures. It was a fantastic morning tour and a unique experience for everyone on board, thanks to all the seabirds, Minke Whales and porpoises!

Birds seen on today´s tours: Northern Gannets, Black-backed Gulls, Atlantic Puffins, Razor Bills, Common Guillemots, Fulmars, Brent Geese

- Hendrik Schultz