Tuesday, 25 June 2013

Tour at 20:30Report from Hafsúlan: The evening sun smiled up on us as we headed to one of the Puffin Islands to begin the tour. We then headed out in the hope of seeing some whales. We sailed for a long time with out any sighting but there were a lot of birds around us, and big groups of Manx Shearwaters which was interesting to see! After about 1,5 hours of sailing we spotted a Minke Whale that was probably sleeping, it surfaced slowly for a couple of times and headed in one direction, but it disappeared very soon, it might have just swam away to find more of a quiet spot to sleep! It came very close to the boat but it was hard to spot the Minke as the waves were in our way. We kept on searching and we saw so much of birds flocks that were feeding but unfortunatly no more cetaceans. We decided to give our passengers complementary tickets although we did see one Minke Whale, it was only for a breef time. But the tour was wonderful, so much bird life and the sunset was just beautiful and on our way home the great musician Bjarni amused us! - Freydís Ósk HjörvarsdóttirTour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out in a beautiful sun shine, heading out for Akurey the Puffin Island. There were not as many birds as this morning so they went probably fishing offshore. It took us some time of sailing before we spotted the first Minke Whale. It was rather elusive so we decided to head further out to find some other animals. After 30 minutes of sailing we spotted some more Minke Whales, we had at least 5 different individuals around the boat and got a good look at one of them. Unfortunately time was running and we had to head back to the city in a very beautiful evening scenery.

-Lisa Hofmann

Tour at 14:00:

Report from Elding: The weather was very good when we headed out for our 14:00 tour. We had only been sailing for about 10 minutes when we spotted a Minke Whale. It surfaced a few times very close to the boat before going down for a deep dive. We waited for a while before heading out in search for something more. On our way out we caught a glimpse of 3-4 Harbour Porpoises. When we got further out we saw a very big group of Northern Gannets plunging in to the water. Close to them we saw a pod of 6-8 White-beaked Dolphins. On our way back we stopped in Akurey to see the beautiful Atlantic Puffins.

-Aldís Erna Pálsdóttir

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The weather was still very nice when we headed out this afternoon. Our plan was to start visit Akurey but on the way we saw two minke whales very close to land! There were lot of seabirds feeding in the area and we stayed with the minkies for quite a bit. After a while we decided to head further out. We saw more minke whales and lot of feeding seabirds. We had diving gannets, minke whales, and then white-beaked dolphins! This was very nice tour with lovely whales.

-Sveinn Guðmundsson

Tour at 10:00:

Report from Skrúður: When we headed out it was a bit windy but the sun had started peeking through the clouds. We started by going to Akurey where we saw a lot of puffins both sitting on the water and on the island. Then we headed out in search of some whales. After about an hour we spotted our first Minke Whale. We approached it and soon we were surrounded by Minke Whales. They came up in all directions, probably 5-6 individuals in total. Some of them surfaced very close, 20 m away. We decided to sail around the area and look for something more. We sailed in a big circle but didn't see any more whales but a lot of different birds. On our way back we spotted one more Minke Whale, a very big individual, probably around 10 m. An amazing tour in beautiful weather.

-Aldís Erna Pálsdóttir

Tour at 9:00Report from Hafsúlan & Elding: Because of so much booking for this tour we took two boats out this morning and started the tour with a visit to one of the Puffin islands, Akurey where we got a good look at the breeding place of the Puffins and a close look at the birds. Just when we were heading out we saw Harbour Porpoises but these little guys are quite shy so they swam away very soon. After we had sailed for some time we spotted the first Minke Whale which surfaced close to the boat and we were very happy that we had such a great sighting just in the beginning of the tour. As we looked around we saw a lot of animals around us and big flocks of birds that were feeding. The Northern Gannets were diving down and in these groups of birds we could see the Minke Whales feeding in the surface and lunge feeding ( that's when they come to the surface with their head pointing straight to the sky). It was a wonderful tour where we could watch around 10 Minke's as they were feeding in teamwork with all of the birds. - Sveinn Guðmundsson & Lisa Hofmann Birds seen on the tour include: Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Lesser black-backed Gulls, Greater black-backed Gulls, Puffins, Eider-Ducks, Nothern Gannets, Common Guillemots, bridled guillemot, Razorbill, Great Skua, Arctic Skua, Manx Shearwater & Arctic Tern