Sunday, 9 August 2015

Tour at 17:00

Report from Eldey: On the last trip of the day we left the harbour in search of cetaceans in an optimistic mood. We traveled for a while, trying to find some of the marine mammals that we saw on the earlier tours. Unfortunately none were seen again, so we kept on going further out the bay. After a bit a blow was spotted at least 4 km away from the boat, so we immediately traveled towards it  looking for the animal that made the blow. It turned out to be a humpback whale! We couldn't believe our luck, since the animal that we were watching for a while was not just the largest animal that we usually see in this bay, a humpback whale, also the animal was surface feeding. The whale was mainly feeding on the side, showing us half of it's fluke quiet a lot. We watched it a as long as possible until we had to head back to the harbour.  

- Michaela Buchbauer

Tour at 14:00

Report from Hafsúlan: A strong wind blowing from North-West greeted us when we set sail for this tour. Nonetheless, we could enjoy some sun during this tour, and we were not shaken badly. Thus we could travel with peace of mind, until we encountered a pod of 6 - 10 white-beaked dolphins ! Those cetaceans were not shy, and even became curious of our boat. They surfaced few times next to us, and some displayed impressive and energetic jumps and leaps ! We enjoyed the show for a while until we decided to look for more. In our way we came a cross huge flocks of sea birds, mostly composed of arctic terns, northern fulmars, black-backed seagulls and northern gannets. It was great to be surrounded by this many birds flying all around ! Most of them were busy feeding, we could even see some fish swarming under the surface of the water. Unfortunately, no more whales were to be spotted on this trip. It seems that today whales were either extremely shy, our just went further offshore in the bay. Slightly disappointed to not have been able to show more of the wildlife here, we headed back toward Reykjavik. At least, the wind was in our back, so the cruise was relaxed and we were warm under the sun !

- Guillaume Calcagni

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: We tried a different area on the way out to look for more whales that are more enthusiastic about people watching. For a very long time the bay seemed empty, only the odd arctic tern, fulmar or puffin flew past. Then as passengers were starting to relax and lose hope, splashes were seen a few km´s away, maybe 3-4 km away. By the frequency and size of the splashes it was definitely white- beaked dolphins. It seemed forever to get to the area but they were found after about 15 minutes of sailing and they were INCREDIBLE! breaching, leaping, head slapping, surfing, mating, interacting with the boat, bow-riding. A pod of 12-14 animals that just stayed with us for ages. Once two other whale watching boats came we left so there was not so many boats around this one pod. They didn´t seem to worry though and seemed to like our company as much as we liked theirs. Unfortunately there was no whales spotted but the dolphins made up for it. A great tour in great weather. 

-Megan Whittaker

Tour at 10:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Conditions today were cloudy and windy but improved remarkably as the tour went on. We sailed out onto Faxa bay and encountered an extremely large flock of seabirds feeding. There were gannets, terns, puffins, skuas, manx shearwaters and many other species feeding on fish close to the water surface. Despite this we saw no cetaceans in this area so we headed further out. About 30 minutes further out we spotted a pod of 4-5 white-beaked dolphins! These individuals were very active, swimming and leaping very close to the boat and surfacing almost within petting distance. A fantastic experience and we hope our passengers got good photos of these dolphins. We then headed back to Reykjavik in the noon sun.

-Ívar Elí

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: The sun was out, sea a little bit choppy but felt calm on our newest edition to our fleet Eldey. The scenery was stunning as we sailed west. It took us about 50 minutes to spot our first cetacean. A pod of 5-7 white beaked dolphins that were fantastic, surfing close to the boat and leaping fully out of water. We enjoyed these dolphins for a while until other whale watching boats came in to enjoy them and it´s not nice to have too many boats around a single pod so we left them to be enjoyed by others. Then a minke whale popped up quickly, surfaced a couple of times, quite difficult to keep track and show our passengers. Then we saw another pod of white-beaked dolphins, 2 fast traveling past but as we already had a great dolphin experience then we decided to continue and search for other whales. It was getting late and we needed to start traveling home but on the way the passengers spotted another minke whale, which we saw surface a few more times than the last. Whales have been quite difficult this morning but lets hope they become more comfortable on the next tour. 

-Megan Whittaker

Birds seen on todays tour: kittiwakes, atlantic puffins, arctic terns, arctic skuas, black-backed gulls, northern gannets, northern fulmars, manx shearwaters, common guillemots.