Thursday, 24 July 2014

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: Calm seas greeted us this evening as we headed out onto Faxa bay for the sixth and final time today. We had reports of a cetacean very close to the harbour from the previous tour so we started searching right of the bat. Unable to spot that cetacean we continued on and after only half an hour spotted our first Minke whale! This individual was quite elusive though and we did not get a look at it. A bit further out we did however find some more sociable minkes. Two of them surfaced extremely close to the front of our boat, giving us a look at most of the animal from just 15 metres away! We also spotted a few more swimming around us as well as gannets diving in the same area. Some very good minkes this evening and a very good performance by musicians Bjarni and Þorgils on our way back to Reykjavik.

-Ívar Elí

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The weather had kept improving all day and so this afternoon we had fantastic conditions, which led us to have a really fantastic tour! Less than thirty minutes out of Reykjavík harbour and we had our first species, the Minke Whale! This would be a taster of what was to come, it stayed around for around 10 minutes before diving and disappearing. So we of course moved on, it took us around another 45 minutes of searching to have another success. We had seen a large group of feeding gulls so headed that way to check out the water there. It turned out to have a pair of Minke Whales feeding together, one of these was a real showman! One was constantly surfacing very near the boat for over 30 minutes, it was impossible to miss this showoff. And along with its normal movements it even lunge fed at the surface several times, coming out of the water with its mouth and throat exposed. Even when we had to head back to shore it began to follow us and move in front of us, but time was up! Or was it? As we sailed back to happened to be greeted to by a group of White-Beaked Dolphins that were leaping out of the water with their whole bodies before splashing back to earth. We spent another 10 minutes with these dolphins but we still had to get back to land so said our goodbyes to some awesome animals this afternoon.

- Jack Ball

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: This afternoon we sallied once more out to the bay in much improved conditions from this morning, making for excellent whale watching conditions. Our search began in an area where a previous tour had spotted some cetaceans but we were unfortunately unable to spot them. We continued further out and about forty minutes into the tour we spotted a Minke whale! We saw this individual once from a distance and then moved in closer. After a while we had not spotted this individual again and were about to leave. The minke then surface right in front of the boat, only about 10-15 metres away, and again off our port side. Sailing on from that encounter we proceeded to spot a few more minkes with a couple of elusive ones and two more which we got a good look at. We also spotted a large blow on our way to shore but were unable to find its owner. A good tour with a close encounter of the minke kind.

-Ívar Elí

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out into a beautifully sunny and fairly calm afternoon with almost perfect sighting conditions. And so it did not take us very long to spot the first Minke Whale in the distance. There turned out to be two minkes in the area, but both of them were fairly elusive so after a while we decided to head further out. Overall we saw at least 6 or 7 different minkes on this tour and some of them gave us very nice looks as they surfaced close to the boat. Another highlight was a fairly large pod (at least 10-12 individuals) of White-Beaked Dolphins. They surfaced very close to us at times, were swimming all around us and even dove right underneath the boat a couple of times. And among all those dorsal fins we spotted a small individual a few times - probably a baby dolphin. A very nice tour on a beautiful day out on the water!

- Linda

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: Conditions were a bit windy this morning when we sailed out but overall spotting conditions were good order. Our search did not take long to bear fruit today and we soon happened upon a pod of White-beaked dolphins. We followed this pod around for a few minutes until we spotted a second pod of dolphins. These two pods then merged together and started interacting with our boat. They surfaced on either side of our bow right next to the boat and we could count nine of them just underneath the surface as they swam under the boat. A fantastic start to the tour and only an hour had passed. Next we went further out and were greeted by a very large flock of feeding Gannets. They were diving all around us, clearly indicating the presence of food in the area. We searched around for a while and then caught sight of a minke whale!. Soon after that sighting we saw a few more and soon had around 3-4 minke whales surfacing around us. They were very intent on their feeding and we were content to just sit and observe them as the Gannets continued their spectacular diving all around us. A very good tour all-in-all and we headed happy back to Reykjavík.

-Ívar Elí

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: As we sailed this morning there was a fairly high wind but the sea itself was quite flat so even though the water looked rough we were never troubled. On this tour we managed to get a good look at two species, first was the Minke Whale. We actually saw several minke whales this morning but there was one that was a definite highlight, this was a very confident whale. It was incredibly confident around the boat, happy to swim incredibly close to us and was circling our boat. This was a fantastic area not just for the whales though, we were lucky enough to be surrounded at the time by hundreds of feeding and diving Northern Gannets! These huge birds dive at very high speeds, it really felt like you were in the middle of an action film! We had a good tour after these sightings and as we headed back we heard reports of White-Beaked Dolphins closer to Reykjavík. As we headed in that direction we actually managed to see three pods of dolphins, each pod around 3-6 individuals. There was one pod that was the best for viewing as it was calmly swimming in the area allowing us a great look at the black and white stripes along their elegant bodies. A really successful tour that allowed for some great views.

- Jack Ball

Birds seen on todays tour include: Atlantic Puffin, Northern Fulmar, Northern Gannet, Manx Shearwater, Arctic Skua, Arctic Tern, Eider Duck, Common Guillemot, Razorbill, Kittiwake, Black-Backed Gull.