Tuesday, 08 July 2014

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: The wind was about the same as the 17:00 tour but the swell had increased a little and everyone tested their sea legs. It took us longer to find the whales on this tour, but with patience and determination we found one minke whale and it surfaced many times but always more than 100 meters from the boat and always unpredictably as it kept changing direction, so probably feeding further down in the water column. After about 15-20 surfaces the whale took its last dive and we couldn't find it again. We started to travel home, scanning the waters surface and listening to the classical/comedy music of Bjarni and þorgils. we did find anther Minke Whale and this one surfaced maybe 3 times, once just 30 meters from the boat and I felt it was curious of us but it didn't surface again so we decided to continue our journey back home for the onboard live music.

- Megan Whittaker

Tour at 17:00

Report from Elding: The wind had picked up a little on this tour and it chilled you to the bone if not dressed properly, so most passengers made use of our free overalls we offer on board. We sailed out to the main area and we got to see 3 different Minke Whales on this tour but only 2 offered us a good look. On the way back to te harbour our passengers moved down to the warmer part of the boat and bought themselves a nice warm drink at our on board bar. ummmm.

-Megan Whittaker

Tour at 14:00

Report from Hafsulan: The ocean was a bit rougher and the cloud cover now completely blocked out the sun. During our travels out to the bay we saw here and there disturbed water patches. Schools of fish seemed to have come to the surface to feed and even started jumping in waves when we approached - a special rarely observed. Soon enough we found our first two Minke Whales, which headed out towards some of these disturbed patches of water. Thus, we concluded that these individuals were out looking for food. Some minutes later, we had three Minke Whales and some were surfacing as close as 50 meters from the boat - leaving behind a cloud of stinky Minke breath. All in all, a great experience for our passengers.

-Dominik Schmid

Tour at 13:00

Report from Elding: The sea conditions were geat, little windy but not sunny. We sailed for 40 minutes until we saw a Minke Whale. It was quite elusive and we lost it after only few resurfaces. But it did no take us a long time to spot the next Minke whale, that one gave us a good look at itself, swimming closer to the boat and the researcher identified this individual as "Micro-2", an individuals we have been seeing in the bay since 2011. After we left Micro-2 we only saw one other Minke Whale but overall this trip was quite good.

- Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir.

Tour at 10:00

Report from Hafsulan: The sun was shining brightly and warm as we were sailing out this morning - a day for T-shirts and shorts, almost. Quite early we spotted many irregularities in the water. In some places we could see splashes and in some disturbed water, but only after a while we could see the 10-20 White-beaked Dolphins responsible for the rumor. The individuals seemed to be very scattered, very unlike the typical tight pods structure that we had seen in most other tours. One particular dolphin was even leaping out of the water and breaching sideways back into the waves, possibly to huddle together or stun some pray. The dolphins had just passed us when we saw a Harbour Porpoise surfacing 3 times before it disappeared. Another few minutes later our first Minke Whale for this trip appeared and surfaces about 40 meters from us, before submerging again. On our way back yet another pod of 9-12 White-beaked Dolphins accompanied us - even interacting with the boat for quite some time. With a big smile we headed back towards the harbour.

-Dominik Schmid

Tour at 09:00

Report from Elding: It was a beautiful sail out into Faxaflói Bay this morning with the sun shining on our face and sea conditions were nice too. We went to one of our favourite areas in the bay (about 40 minutes sailing) and saw splashes in the distance by the frequently and amount of splashes there were it was obvious it was dolphins. White-beaked Dolphins to be exact and once we got closer we could see dolphins in all directions, they seemed to be in scattered small pods but we had them around us for a long time, not necessarily the same individuals but always around. I would say there was at least 50+ dolphins all in all throughout the tour, near and far. After a while we went searching for some minke whales, we found two but only one gave us a good look, the minke whales seemed quite difficult this morning. In the end we found that this Minke Whale with the good encounter was one called Micro 2, a minke whale seen every year since 2011. Its always nice to see recurring whales, back in the Bay.

-Megan Whittaker