Thursday, 9 June 2011

Tour at 17:00

We headed out again from Grindavík harbour in sunny and windy weather. The wind had picked up a little bit but that did not stop us searching for the whales. We sailed out about 30 min without seeing anything, but then suddenly we spotted a blow! And again we found a very nice pod of Orcas. We were able to approach them very closely and they were swimming in front of us only 5 meters away! Just amazing! We followed them for a while and they did not disappoint us, we were able to observe them very closely for some time. After a nice time with the killer whales we headed to Krísurvíkurbjarg to enjoy the beautiful view of this amazing 15km long cliff with lot of seabirds on and around it. So all in all, absolutely amazing tour!

Birds seen on tour: Fulmars, kittiwakes, gannets, black guillemots, guillemots and razorbills

 

Tour at 13:00

Again we headed out from Grindavík and the weather was the same, strong wind, very cold and sunny. This time we didn't even have the chance to tell the people what too look for to spot the whales because the first thing we saw was a huge black fin 500 meters in front of us. And it was the same ORCA family we spotted first in the morning tour. They were very busy feeding and we could approach them easily. We followed them for a long time and it was absolutely amazing watching these beautiful animals surfacing many times even 3-4 whales up together. Then we saw two male orcas swimming close together 50 meters from the boat and one of them lifted up its tail 3-4 times. It was awesome. There were lots of birds feeding in the same area were the whales were feeding. It is difficult to say how many whales were in this family but we are guessing between 7-9. 2 males with very tall fins, 2-3 calves in different ages and 4-5 females. At one point some of them surfaced 10-20 meters from our boat so the people could not get better sightings. It was very difficult to leave them when the time was out, and they even followed the boat for few seconds (or it looked like it). So we turned back to the harbour of Grindavík with lots off smiling passengers. Absolutely unforgettable tour.

 

Tour at 09:00

We headed out from Grindavík this morning because the sea conditions were bad in Faxaflói. The weather was nice, even though the wind was strong and cold, but it was sunny and no big waves. After sailing for 10-15 minutes we spotted a large fin. And it was a family of ORCA, 7-9 animals. What luck. We followed them for a while, watching them surfacing many times all around us, and we saw they were busy feeding. Suddenly they disappeared. We headed further along the coast and there we found the second group of orca (killer whale). This group was smaller, only 4-5 animals. We spent some time with them until the time was out. Fantastic tour.

Birds seen on tours: Fulmars, gannets, kittiwakes, black baked gulls, and arctic skuas.