Thursday, 11 August 2011

Tour at 20:30

We headed straight out to Faxaflói to find the whales. After a while we found a minke whale. This whale was slowly surfacing just next to us, only 20 meters away from the boat, so many times! We stayed with that minke whale for a while and it was very lovely, being very close to the boat. Then after a while it swam away so we kept on going. We searched for a long time and found one more minke whale, but this one only surfaced once before going for a deeper dive, and we did not see that one again. So a really good minke whale in the beginning of the tour!

 

Tour at 17:00

Nothing really changed on this tour it was as incredible as the previous ones. Started at Akurey but unfortunately not many puffins and then headed out into Faxaflói Bay to the hot spot and once again had Minke Whales surfacing everywhere, 3 surfaced at once within 10 or so meters of each other and only 15 meters from us, hundreds of Gannets plunging into the water and great Harbour Porpoises. Another great day in Faxaflói Bay, lets hope it continues.

 

Tour at 14:00

It only took us about 5 minuets to find our first minke whale! It was really close to land and in the area the whale was we saw lot of mackerel in the surface, so lots of food there. This lovely minke whale surfaced many times for us and it was even surface feeding! WOW After a great show at the beginning of the tour we headed out on Faxaflói. Soon we saw some gannets and little later another minke whale! We waited there and suddenly we had 4-5 minke whales all around us surfacing really really close to us! And that was not just it, few harbour porpoises came really close to us as well, and we could see them clearly swimming under the surface! Just amazing tour!

 

Tour at 13:00

Once again the weather didn't fail us. It was beautiful and so was the wildlife. We started at Lundey to say hello to the Puffins but unfortunately not many were at home. Then took us about 30-40 minutes to get to the main whale watching area and see our first cetaceans which happened to be a couple of Harbour Porpoises that surfaced just 5-10 meters from our boat and many times too. Then suddenly whilst watching the porpoises a Minke Whale surfaced, after that it was crazy, hundreds of feeding gannets and other seabirds, at least 3 Minke Whales and Harbour Porpoises. On a couple of occasions the Minke Whale surfaced just a couple of meters from our vessel (see picture below) INCREDIBLE!!!!

 

Tour at 10:00

The weather was beautiful when we headed out. Our first stop was the puffin island, Lundey and we saw some puffins around it. Out in the bay we spotted a pod of harbour porpoises and many minke whales, at least 5-6 animals. Some of them came very close, 5-7 meters from the boat, others surfaced further away. Lots of diving Gannets in the area, guillemots, razorbills and fulmars. Nice tour.

 

Tour at 09:00

Beautiful sunshine this morning in Reykjavík harbour and out in the Faxaflói bay. Met hundreds of Puffins at Lundey, flying around the island in a big cloud and paddling on the water surface. Still very close to shore, a pod of the cute but shy little Harbour Porpoise crossed our path! So close to land! Further out, we met a huge flock of sea Gannets, diving and feeding into the water and it was not until long until several Minke whales showed their pointed snouts. It went like this for almost an hour, with lots of Minkes and another pod of Porpoises surfacing in short intervals. A FABULOUS tour!!