Wednesday, 10 July 2013

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: Fortunately, the wind had calmed down as we left the harbour this evening. However, the visibility had dropped as well and it was quite rainy. We started at Akurey the puffin island where we enjoyed the company of many cute puffins. After we had left the island, it took us quite a bit of time to find the first White-beaked dolphins but after those were spotted, we never really had to search again as they would surface all around us, in several large pods. Just like this morning, we could observe them slapping their tails against the water surface, breaching high out of the water and approaching the boat. Several times, we would have them less than a meter from the boat, diving curiously under us! There were not that many birds out on the bay despite there being plenty of fish which is probably what attracted the dolphins. Sometimes they would swim very fast (up to 10 knots!) and other times they would just float stationary in the surface. Finally we ran out of time and had to head back. Bjarni played the guitar on the way back but unfortunately we were not able to observe the sunset because of the rainy weather. But the seas were calm and the sightings were good so all in all it was an excellent summer evening on the Faxaflói bay!

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: In the afternoon, the sky was still covered in clouds and here and there it was raining, but the wind had calmed down a bit and therefore the sea got a bit calmer. On the way out, we stopped at Akurey, a puffin island in front of Reykjavik, where we had a wonderful view on the Atlantic Puffins. Some of them were diving right in front of the boat and we were able to see their bodies below the water.As we headed further out, it took us quite some patience and persistance scanning the bay for cetaceans. We smelled the stinky breath of a Minke Whale here and there, but did not see them actually. Then, a little girl from BC who was standing at 6 o'clock spotted big splashes in several kilometers distance. We directly headed towards where she had seen it and were rewarded for all our patience with a big group of 15 to 20 White-beaked Dolphins, surfacing and jumping within feeding birds. We spent as much time as we could with these wonderful animals watching them riding the front wave of our boat and surfacing close by several times. It was a magical moment and I hope all of our passengers enjoyed it as much as I did. Takk fyrir daginn! :-)

- Hendrik Schultz

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: This afternoon, it was quite windy and very cloudy to begin with. After we had stopped at Lundey, the puffin island it started to rain and the seas had gotten rougher than this morning. It started out slowly but as soon as the rain stopped, a small pod of white-beaked dolphins popped up quite close to us. They were swimming very slowly, not showing much of their bodies as they were resting. We hung around for a while before heading further out. At one point a minke whale surfaced but not many people were able to see it. It came up twice but was swimming very fast, apparently feeding as there were lots of birds around and we saw fish on the fish finder. Quite disappointed, we turned around to head to Reykjavík but on the way there, we found another large pod of white-beaked dolphins. Those were not resting, they seemed to enjoy our company, came close to the boat, some dived under it and we had great sightings this time. Despite a few sea sick passengers and quite a windy day, the tour turned out to be fine with nice dolphin sightings.

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 13.00

Report from Hafsúlan: In the afternoon, the wind had icked up a bit and the sky was more overcast than earlier. We started at Lundey, a puffin island close to Reykjavik's harbour and thoroughly enjoyed watching the clowns of the sea. When we headed out further, the weather turned a bit worse and faxa bay greeted us with loads of rain. Even though the bay was filled with birdlife, we "only" spotted a couple of three White-beaked Dolphins in the end of the tour, which immediately disappeared as we slowed down. Hence, the Atlantic Puffins turned out to be the highlight of this tour. Since we were not able to show whales to all of our passengers, we were happy to give out complimentary tickets that are valid for two years and hope to see all of you again on one of our future tours!

- Hendrik Schultz

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: We started in the puffin island Akurey and then headed straight out on the bay. The seas were relatively calm, visibility good and it was a warm day on an Icelandic standard. As we approached an area where we had had reports of sightings from our sister vessel, we spotted splashes a few hundred meters away which we approached. It turned out to be breaching white-beaked dolphins! Awesome! We hung around for a good half an hour, watching the dolphins showing of their beautiful bodies making big splashes. Some of the approached us, dived under the boat, slapped their tail against the water surface and one actually slapped its head repeatedly against the water. It was as if they were fighting for our attention! After a while we decided to leave the dolphins and look for something else. About one nautical mile from where we had seen the dolphins, we spotted flocks of birds and there seemed to be a lot to eat. Soon, the minke whales started surfacing all around us, all in all there must have been about 5 of them, some of which came very close. Great tour!

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: In the morning, a fresh wind was blowing, but the sea was not very rough. Before heading further out, we had a nice stop at Akurey, on of the islands where the Atlantic Puffins are breeding on. And yes, we enjoyed our little meeting with the cute and charismatic birds. When we headed out further, it just took about 30 minutes until we spotted a blow close by. It turned out to be a Minke Whale showing up about three times and one time relatively close to the boat. Within the next few moments, we saw between two and three more individuals surfacing. However, from one moment to the other, everything went quiet and the minkes seemed to hide below our boat. We went a bit further and were happy to spot a group of 3 to 5 White-beaked Dolphins, which were enjoyable, but quite hard to follow. However, our sister boat Elding had spotted anotehr group of jumping dolphins and as we arrived there, we were able to see this nature spectacle at least from the distance. A nice finish for this morning's tour in faxa bay.

- Hendrik Schultz

Birds seen on today's tours include: atlantic puffins, lesser black backed gulls, kittiwakes, manx shearwaters, fulmars, northern gannets, common guillemots, eider ducks, black headed gulls