Thursday, 17 October 2013

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: This afternoon was a nice restful one. We sailed out in calmer seas, almost mirror calm. We sailed past Viðey first and found a small pod of 6-8 feeding Harbour Porpoises which were surfacing very close to the boat. At one point a large shoal of sandeels jumped out of the water maybe trying to escape from the jaws of larger fish. Then we sailed a large part of the bay and saw at least 4-5 solitary scattered Minke Whales, most of which seemed to not be in a very whale watching mood and went for long dives. The last Minke Whale we saw was incredible and was not perturbed but us one little bit as it surfaced many times just 3-4 meters from our boat. It was wonderful to  have this large wild animal surface as close as it did all on its own accord. It was just amazing.

-Megan Whittaker

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out from Reykjavik Old Harbour with calm seas, overcast but dry skies. After 30 minutes of sailed we saw our first Minke Whale, he/she surfaced many times but always at a distance. Something we have to respect with wildlife. After a while we headed of and searched for others, We found 3 White-beaked Dolphins which were great to begin with, played under and around the boat at one point but soon we felt we were disturbing them too much and so we left them in peace. We found another pod of 4-6 dolphins and these interacted with us a bit longer but also looked to be chasing fish. On the way home we spotted the Minke again closer to land, we waited until we couldn´t wait any longer for it to resurface. A nice and relaxed morning in the bay.

-Megan Whittaker

Birds seen on todays tours include :Nothern Gannets, Kittiwakes, Cormorants, Glaucous Gulls, Lesser Black Backed Gulls, Eider Ducks, Long-tailed Ducks, Guillemots, Razorbills.