Thursday, 21 August 2014

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Yet again, the wind had picked a notch on this tour but the skies were still clear, the sun was shining bright and the Snæfellsjökull glacier greeted us from across the bay as we sailed out of the harbour. This time around, it did take us quite a while to spot something. After more than an hour, the first blow was seen in the distance. We looked for a few minutes before we could confirm that indeed, there was a minke whale in the area. It spent long periods underwater but once it came up, it would blow vigorously out of its blow hole and make a splash so we could locate it right away. It was apparently travelling due north and we stayed close to it for about half an hour, before we decided to head into another area. Since we had accompanied the minke far out on the bay, it took us a while to get back to the harbour but on the way there, the wind was blowing from behind us so the sailing was smooth and spirits good.

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: There still wasn´t a cloud in the sky this afternoon, let the gorgeous August continue! And yet another double species tour! There was just one minke whale this afternoon but it surfaced several times quite close to the boatso at least it was a whale which gave a good account of itself. The second species would be the highlight of the tour though, it was the white-beaked dolphins once again! This was a very large pod of about 12 dolphins, first we were following a smaller group but they found even more dolphins for us! We were very grateful for their gift of more dolphins especially as they were so great to watch. Many times they would swim under and around us and were constantly swimming within 10 metres of the boat. We could see their entire bodies and could hear them breathing when they breached the surface. A really beautiful way to experience these dolphins.

- Jack Ball

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The wind had picked up a bit this afternoon as we headed out, but it was still bright and nice on the bay. After a while, we saw a dense group of sea birds (mostly gulls) that appeared to be feeding in the surface. But quite disappointingly, no whale surfaced there. We left the birds and soon we found a minke whale and shortly after another one. They seemed to be busy feeding and were spending quite some time under water but when they came up, they would surface three to four times in a row and we would get excellent looks at them. After we decided to leave these two behind and head further out, we managed to find a third one. It was quite big and was surfacing frequently. On the way back, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery, great weather and stunning visibility.

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: We had beautiful weather this fine summer morning, not a cloud in the sky and very flat seas greeted us as we sailed into Faxaflói Bay. Perfect whale watching weather! The visibility was so clear that we could see the entire Snæfellsjökull glacier and volcano in the distance. And the sightings were very nice today too! First we found a minke whale that kept swimming into the Sun's glare, this made it a little hard to watch but it gives a great photo opportunity. Heading further out we would see a second minke whale but this one was very elusive and didn´t make for good watching. Then we found a second species! White-beaked dolphins! This was a pod of 7 dolphins that even had a calf among them, a baby dolphin! They were travelling very slowly and let us get very close and have a great look at them. But there was a second pod of dolphins later on that would be even more entertaining. This was another pod of 7, but the difference was that 4 if them were jumping metres out of the water and smashing their bodies against the sea making a great show! Who needs seaworld! After an exhilerating show we moved on and we headed back to harbour we found two more minke whales! The fun never stops at Elding!

- Jack Ball

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan and Skrúður:

It was bright and sunny when we headed out onto the Faxaflói bay this morning. Luckily, the strong winds from yesterday had calmed and the visibility was so good that the Snæfellsjökull glacier was to be seen over the bay. Quite early on in the tour, a big flock of feeding sea birds was found and as we approached them, we did find a minke whale. We stayed with this minke for quite short because shortly after, we found splashes from breaching white-beaked dolphins in the distance. We approached them and stayed with two of them as they headed towards Hvalfjörður at quite a speed. After we left the dolphins, we found a few more minkes and another pod of white-peaked dolphins. All in all, there were at least 12 dolphins in two pods and 5 minkes spread over quite a large area, all of them feeding. Awesome sightings in awesome weather. Great start of the day!

-Arnór Tumi and Dominik Schmid

Birds seen on today's tours include: Puffins, fulmars, lesser black-backed gulls, guillemots, kittiwakes, northern gannets, arctic terns, storm petrels, arctic skuas and eider ducks