Wednesday, 09 July 2014

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: The weather was nice as we headed out on the bay tonight as the winds had calmed down. It did not take us long to find the first minke whales. There were around three of them. They were feeding in the surface, lunging and even rolling, surfacing frequently and showing us their white bellies. We spent most of the tour with these calm and apparently hungry minke whales but then we decided to leave them for some breaching white-beaked dolphins. There were about 15 to 20 of them in around 4 pods and they surrounded us, leaping, breaching and diving under us. Very nice. We even got a brief look at a harbour porpoise! On the way back, Bjarni and Þorgils played the guitar and sang. So all in all this was a very nice evening after quite a difficult day. Bravissimo!

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: As we left the harbour and passed the puffin colonies it looked quite calm out on the sea, almost no white caps on the waves. When we came back this looked a bit different. Weather wise we head sunlit mountains and rain clouds and even rainbow colours in sight. Diverse was also the wildlife me met. Seabirds and cetaceans could be watched. We started with Atlantic Puffins followed by Northern Fulmars and so we went on with a few more seabird species until we found the first Minke Whale. After some good looks at it we continued with an other minke before we had a sighting of White-Beaked  Dolphins. There was a spread out pod of more than 10 individuals varying their behaviour from slow to fast travelling and surfing but the most spectacular was definitely their acrobatic leaps. Some provided ordinary leaps while one was repeatedly breaching, twisting its body landing sideways. After giving everybody a great show, splashing, presenting its abilities and black and white body, we were looking at some more leaps of other pod members even juveniles where among them. Finally we let them swim into the wave and wind while we took an other route heading slowly towards Reykjavik. Suddenly an other minke appeared close by the boat and we had a great closeup look. We saw it several times coming to the surface before our time was running out to spend observing out at sea. The last impressions we got of this whale was the smell of its breath while the wind was bringing it into our noses. So that everybody noticed why they are called stinky minkes. Happy people were arriving with memorable experiences back in the port.

- Carine Zimmermann

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The winds seemed to have picked up a bit this afternoon as we headed out. We were still quite close to the shore when, quite surprisingly, a minke whale surfaced close to us. It was heading north and was swimming quite fast. It came up a few times before we lost it. We sailed further out and went through a large area. On our way, three more minke whales were spotted but each one was only seen surface once each time. They were being quite elusive leaving us disappointed. But of course, we did not give up and decided to stay patient and positive. This ended up paying off because finally after two hours, the fourth minke whale surfaced right in front of us and this time, it really showed off, surfaced several times quite close to us and provided us with good sightings. All in all, we would have loved to have some more sightings but then again, we are dealing with mother nature and as it turned out, there were plenty of whales in the bay today, but most of them were just being shy. Such is wildlife.

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: It was still windy but dry during the whole tour. At the way out it felt quite warm as the wind was more noticeable on the way back blowing constantly from the southeast. Our first encounter started with a blow of a Minke Whale followed by sightings of the corresponding slim body. We were watching this individual for a while when we realized that there was a second minke in the area. We spent some more time with one of them and all in all we had several looks at these two whales even it is a challenge to not loose them out of sight in windy conditions. But it looked like everybody managed it to have proper looks at this species of baleen whales and as well at a whole bunch of seabirds which were probably feeding in the surroundings of the whales.

- Carine Zimmermann

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: Winds were southerly as we headed out of the harbour this morning. The first pod of white-beaked dolphins was spotted after about 45 minutes. There were around 5 animals that surfaced frequently. They were changing their course a lot and showing off quite well, some of them even approaching us. Two more pods were found displaying similar behaviour. Some dolphins were breaching out of the water showing us their white bellies and producing big splashes. Then, Gulli, our first mate, spotted a minke whale in the distance. We approached the location where it had been seen but sadly, we did not see it come up again despite a thorough look around. On the way back, one more pod of dolphins was spotted, and this time like earlier in the tour, they were behaving quite playfully. All in all there were around 18 dolphins in the four pods.

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan and Skruður: The weather was quite windy when our boats left for the first tour of the day. Luckily the wind was coming from the East and we had a surprisingly calm sail out. On Hafsúlan we saw 1 elusive Minke Whale and 4-5 White-Beaked Dolphins which were rather difficult to watch but we enjoyed a vast diversity of seabirds (notice list below). The Northern Gannets have been diving like torpedos surrounded by different other bird species. On Skruður we found a few scattered Minke Whales, but most of them were unfortunately behaving quite elusively. We got a couple of quite nice looks at one of the whales as it surfaced fairly close to our boat. One of the passengers on the smaller boat also spotted a group of at least 3 White-Beaked Dolphins. We saw their dorsal fins at the surface a couple of time and also a part of their body with the light pattern on the side as they came up between the waves. But unfortunately they disappeared as quickly as they had shown up and after taking another look at a minke whale it was time to head back in. The sail back, against the wind this time, was a bit more rocky - especially on Skruður! So after this adventurous tour some of our passengers were quite glad to be back on solid ground...

- Carine & Linda

Birds seen on todays tour include: Northern Gannets, Northern Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Arctic Terns, Arctic Skuas, Great Skuas, Common Guillemots, Lesser Black-Backed Gulls, Atlantic Puffins, European Storm Petrels, Manx Shearwaters.