Tuesday, 29 May 2012

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: It took us a while to spot the first Minke Whale, it didn't surface very often and in between long deep dives. But we could have a quick look at it 2-3 times. Then we decided to try our chance in another area and after a little while we saw quite a big blow at 12 o'clock 80 meters away. The wind already picked up and there was a little bit of sweal. This second Minke whale was also a bit elusive but at our big surprise surfaced two times close to the boat and the second time at 5 meters in front of the boat heading towards us very quickly which was really amazing. the passengers who where on the good side of the boat got a very close view of it. Then it didn't appear and we had to head back to the harbour and stop at the puffin island where there were thousands flying, standing on the grass and a lot even more at the water surface. On the way back, we got a nice look at 3-4 harbour porpoises on the left side of the boat not even ten meters away.

 

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan We sailed out in beautiful weather and calm seas. We started the tour at Akurey and saw many puffins, flying and swimming around the island. Then we headed further out into Faxaflói Bay. The whales would of been really easy to find today due to the calm seas and you would of been able to spot them miles off however, not many were in the bay and the same for the seabirds too. We did see 2 Minke Whales on this tour, one for a short time and one right at the end that was perfect, surfacing less than 10 meters from the boat giving the passengers a great look. We saw many small pods of Harbour Porpoises too throughout the tour which was great. Perfect  weather with difficult Minkes.

 

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: This morning was just perfect for whale watching. Calm sea and sunny weather made very exciting to sail out to Faxaflói bay. We sailed though for some time before we spotted our first minke whale. This one was only surfacing once before taking a long deep dive, so after a while we decided to head further out and leave that whale in peace. Later we found two more minke whales and they were swimming together. This was very nice but still they were not surfacing many times in a row. At least we could take a look at them few times close to the boat. On the way back home we encountered two more minkes! We saw harbor porpoises as well throughout the tour and some of them came even very close to the boat so we could see the whole body under the surface. Our time was though running out as we still had to visit the puffin Island Akurey where we had sooooo many puffins. Beautiful day on the sea with both minke whales and harbor porpoises.