Thursday, 21 July 2016

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: Chill and beautiful evening in the Bay of Reykjavik. We were going for the last trip of the day and it was full of life. The sky was about to clear up a bit in the horizon and the light was turning yellow for the sunset which made the landscape even more pretty than it is already. We sailed for about 40 minutes when we saw a couple of blows in the distance. We knew that they were from humpback whales but we also could see some smaller individuals close by them. When we came closer to the spot we figured out that it was feeding time for the whales and also for a group of 5-8 white beaked dolphins. These dolphins were very active feeding and socializing in the area, jumping and playing to each other. The humpback whales were also feeding very close to the surface. A couple of times one individual just came all the way with the mouth open to catch all the krill and fish towards the boat, so we could even see the baleen plates from the jaw of the animal. Moreover, on the top of that, a minke whale showed up in front of the boat so we could literally choose what to look at. It was just unique to see so much action at sea. Of course the arctic terns join the mean catching the food also from the surface. It was an amazing evening to end the day!

- Alejandro García

Tour at 17:00

Report from Eldey: The wind had calm down compared to the previous tours today, which made the sea conditions perfect for whale watching. We were very optimistic to see a lot of wildlife out in the bay since the last tours had been very succeful. We had to sail out for almost one hour out in the bay and before we saw the first blow of a humpback whale in the distance. We moved closer and we saw two more blows, not to far from the first humpback. Now came the question which of the 3 humpbacks to follow? The decision became very easy because one more humpback just showed up within 500 m from the boat! Incredible to see 4 humpback whales in the same area! We stayed with this individual a couple of minutes and saw it surfaced and bring up its fluke several times. A pod (at least 6 individuals) of white-beaked dolphins appared a bit further away from us, and since we knew we had more humpbacks in the area, we decided to leave this specific humpback whale to have a closer look at the dolphins before they swam too far away from us. This pod of dolphins had 3 calves and I think all passengers on board were really happy to see these tiny small dolphins that were so cute! After the dolphins we headed south towards Reykjavik and stopped for the fifth humpback whale on this tour. This one came closer to the boat and was swimming between us and another whale watching boat. Since the other humpback had been a very photogenic whale and brought up its fluke several times, everyone was once again ready with their cameras to take a picture of the fluke. However, this whale didn't seem to want to show us its beautiful patterns of white and black colours underneath the fluke. Time was running out and we were ready to head back to Reykjavik, and just as we started to turned the boat the whale went for a deeper dive and finally brought up its fluke! Everyone onboard started to cheer and it felt like this humpback wanted to say goodbye to us. Bye bye humpie and thank you for a perfect end of the tour!

- Johanna Bergman

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The sea was a bit choppy on our 14:00 tour, but the spotting conditions were still very good. We were very optimistic, as we had such successful nice morning tour (10:00). We headed straight toward the area where we saw few individuals of humpback whale on our morning tour. It was a location a bit further out in the bay. On the way we passed 2 humpback whales, saw their blows, but they were quite far from our direction (1 and more kilometers), so we were looking them from the distance as we were heading toward the morning location. Indeed, as we were approaching to our location, we spotted at least 3 humpback whales in that area! We chose one to see it up close. It turned out it was a bit unpredictable one, as it didn't have a constant speed or dive sequence. Despite, it seemed it isn't disturbed as it continued traveling parallel with us and even came closer to the bow few times. After awhile, after we all had a good look at it and took nice pictures, we decided to leave this individual. Just at that moment- it breached! Again, completely unpredictable! So, we decided to stay few more minutes with it, hoping to see some more “action“. The humpback continued traveling in it's unpredictable rhythm, so we decided to find some other animals. As soon as we turned the boat, we spotted a white-beaked dolphin jumping! We headed to this group of dolphins, and when we arrived noticed a big flock of birds feeding, so probably dolphins were feeding too. Although we approached them aside, when we arrived, they separated. Few individuals went in opposite direction of us and 3 individuals actually slowed down and start milling just in front of us. Soon they were surfacing all around us and even wave-ride few little waves which came aside of us! We turned the speed of engine again on, while they were aside, and as soon as we raised (slow) speed, they came straight to us and bow ride! On both sides of the bow! It was amazing! Then they turned on one side, and although it seemed they are starting to go away from us, we kept the same direction and speed and they did it again! Came straight to our bow and start swimming on the bow, on the sides of the boat, under it, surfacing just next to us...Very amusing encounter! On our way back we spotted another humpback whale. As we came closer to it, we noticed few big flocks of birds feeding. The humpback whale surfaced with its mouth fully open right toward us! What a funny sight! We all saw literally inside the whale mouth! J It surfaced few more times like this. It was beautiful to see this wild giant feeding in its natural environment, completely undisturbed, just naturally. While watching this gentle giant, we spotted another humpback in a distance and noticed it's coming closer to us. Maybe they joined in feeding..? Indeed, as we started heading back, we saw them surfacing together behind us, one behind other. Unfortunately, we ran out of time, so we couldn't see how the situation developed after. The landscape was beautiful too. There were some rainy clouds illuminated by sun which formed a hug rainbow cloud above the sea surface in front of us...In all, one spectacular tour! 

-Tena Šarčević

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: In the continuity of this morning, we got again extremely luck on Eldey ! It was quite windy when we left the harbour, but the sea remained calm, so there was nothing to impede our sighting. It took us a while to get back to the area where we saw the humpback this morning, but once we reached the promised spot, the humpback whales galore began. We spotted a blow in the distance, then another one, and another one, and again another one and so on... It was terrific ! A perfect mix of excitement and confusion as we were surrounded by humpback whales in the distance and did not know which one to approach first ! We settled for the closest individual to our boat and were not disappointed to meet an easy and cooperative whale. It was surfacing regularly, never going for a deep dive and allowed us to sail close to it. We could follow it for a while and had great looks, so we decided to leave it alone and go for another one. We could get in the vicinity of a different individual but it proved to be more tricky, taking long dives and surfacing far away from us. As we were spoiled to have numerous back up humpback around us, we could afford to leave this one quickly and check on others. One suddenly breached not too far away from us, so we dashed toward it, hoping to be able to to see it jumping again. We had to be a little bit patient, but eventually it breached one more time, to our greatest joy ! At some point it was time to head back toward Reykjavik, so we obliged. We were blessed to have a bonus humpback before we reached the harbour. This brought the count to about 10 humpbacks in total, and we could get close to 4 of them. You can never get enough of those majestic juggernauts !

- Guillaume Calcagni 

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: Unfortunately a bitter wind had picked up quite a lot since yesterday but passengers sensibly got all suited and booted up to enjoy the surroundings. After 50 minutes of traveling we spotted our first blow, and on approach we actually saw another nearer blow by another whale watching boat that we went to investigate. How amazing to come across such a playful humpback whale! During our 40 minutes with this individual I lost count of the incredible different social behaviors we saw. It first started with repeated pec slapping whilst also showing half of it´s fluke, and repeated rolling in order to get it´s beautiful long white flipper out of the water. It then stuck just the tip of it´s nose out the water, and later fully spy hopped 50 m in front of the boat! We also saw it breach 3 times, as well as lifting it´s glorious fluke out of the water slowly and without slapping it on the water several times too! Whilst we were watching this the passengers at the bow got quite a surprise when 2 white beaked dolphin flashed by next to the boat! After this we headed out and got close to another tail lobbing humpback, as well as seeing 2 more in the surrounding kilometer and at least 10 different blows. A truly unforgettable tour for all!

- Ophelie Humphrey

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: It was raining this morning when we left the harbour but it was quite warm and the sea conditions were very good. We had been sailing for some time when we suddenly spotted a minke whale in front of us. We followed it for a while but soon it disappeared so we decided to continue our search for cetaceans. Soon we were spotting blows all around us and there was even a big splash in the distance. It was hard to decide where to look! We headed towards the one that had made the big splash and when we came closer we saw that it was a feeding humpback whale and it was feeding just below the surface. It never stayed under for a long time and it fluked each time it came to the surface (which was often) which is a very good combination. We stayed with it for awhile and it even came really close to us! There were still a lot of blows around us and there were at least 6 humpback whales in the area so we decided to get a closer look at another humpback whale. We were getting close to another one when a third one suddenly breached about 200 meters away! We changed direction and went towards the breaching one instead and it just kept breaching! 9 times to be exact which is absolutely amazing! We then had to start heading back to the harbour but we were still surrounded by so much incredible wildlife and while we were passing the fourth humpback whale it started rolling around and then lay on it's back as we passed by slowly. Then it started pec-slapping and rolling again! When we were about a kilometer away it started breaching as well! Three times! As we were heading back we even noticed another minke whale and more humpbacks! An awesome tour with two minke whales and humpbacks galore!

- Bryndís Ösp

Bird species seen on today's tour include: kittiwake, razorbill, great black-backed gull, atlantic puffin, arctic skua, northern gannet, arctic tern, common guillemot, northern fulmar
 

We are sailing out from the old harbor in Reykjavík. It has started raining but the wind is quite calm and the sea as well.