Thursday, 20 September 2012

Tour at 13:00

We went straight out to where we had left the dolphins two hours earlier but they were off to somewhere and we did not see them on this tour. We did however see Minke Whale (1) and Harbour Porpoises (4-5). First we saw the porpoises and spent a few minutes watching them. But then we saw a Minke in some distance and went off. Then suddenly the porpoises popped up in front of the boat as we were heading towards the Minke; it was almost as if they did not want us to go. Some attention seekers all right! However, it was Minke time now. We found this whale and it was very easy going, spending good time on the surface and surfacing often. We must have spent about half an hour around it but the Minke did not mind. Gosh it was quite a tour!

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: What a beautiful autumn morning it was! We sailed out of the old harbour in Reykjavík in a sunny weather and excellent sea condition. We had to look for a while before we came across a small pod of Harbour Porpoises. These were very nice porpoises coming close to the boat so everyone got a good look. After a while we sailed on and searched for a little longer, then we saw a lot of splashes in the distance. After sailing closer we saw that this was a big pod of White Beaked Dolphins! This was at least 30 individuals or more. These were playful dolphins, coming close to the boat, staying all around us and we could even see them swimming under the boat and jumping out of the water! We spent as long as we could with the dolphins but in the end it was time to head back to Reykjavík. On our way back we found another pod of White Beaked Dolphins that we spent a little while with before we sailed back to the harbour in the beautiful sunny weather.

Birds seen on todays tours: Northern Gannets, Lesser Black Backed Gulls, Common Guillemot, Shaqs, Fullmars and more.

Photos taken on the morning tour by Baldur Thorvaldsson