Wednesday, 12 June 2013

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We went out on the bay with high hopes after the last tour this afternoon. It was calm but a bit rainy as headed back to where the Humpback whale had been on the earlier tour. To our disappointment, we did not find it again, so we headed a bit further. After a few minutes we spotted the first Harbour porpoises. By then, it had stopped to rain and the sun had come out. The porpoises were quite elusive this time so we decided to go further but just then a Minke whale was spotted about 400 meters from the boat. We approached it slowly and carefully. It was swimming very slowly, at times almost stationary and it appeared that it was resting. After this, Minke whales surfaced all around, though they were spread over quite an area. All in all there must have been five or six Minkes, of which two were quite small, possibly young ones. The remarkable fact was that they all appreared to be resting, every single one swimming very slowly and calmly. Some came quite close to the boat so that we could hear their blows. On the way back we stopped at the puffin islands where we saw the same bird species we had encountered out on the bay. There were Puffins, Arctic terns, Eider ducks, Guillemots and even one Gannet. All in all a good tour on a beautiful calm day.

- Arnór Tumi

Report from elding II. We headed out from Reykjavik in very good weather and calm sea. After about 30 minutes of sailing we saw some White-beaked Dolphins. They swam away soon after but then we spotted a Minke Whale. We stayed in the same area for an hour and saw around 7 minke whales and two of them surfaced very close to the boat. Then we heard about a bigger whale closer to the harbor so we headed there. Soon we saw a huge blow from the wonderful Humpback Whale. It surfaced within 10 m from the boat a few times and showed it's fluke a couple of times. We decided by unanimous vote to watch the humpback for a little longer instead of going to the puffin island. What a great tour with a surprise visit from the humpback whale.-Freydís ósk hjörvarsdòttir

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: When we went out this afternoon, the wind had increased slightly, but the sea was still nice and calm. Again, we stopped at Akurey, one of the islands in front of Reykjavik where the Atlantic Puffins are breeding on. We saw some puffins sitting on the water surface around the island and some flying by in the closer surrounding of the boat. Then, we continued our journey in faxa bay towards the area where we had seen Minke Whales in the morning. Arriving there, we were not disappointed since a Minke Whale showed up close by just after a few minutes of sailing in the area. We saw it surfacing a few more times, before the Minke went for a long dive and vanished. However, just a few minutes later, we spotted a group of four White-beaked Doplphins, which came very close to our vessel and one of them, an infant, even leaped slightly out of the water. While watching the dolphins, we saw more Minke Whales surfacing in the distance, in total we must have seen about ten different individuals, but all behaving quite elusive. WHen we headed back towards Reykjavik, we had already decided, that it was a very good tour with dolphins and Minkes, not knowing what was awaiting us in front of the harbour: a Humpback Whale, the first after more than two weeks, surfaced right in front of our boat showing its huge humped back and beautiful fluke when it went for a dive. It surfaced for a couple of times every five minutes and we thoroughly enjoyed watching it for about half an hour. It was a wonderful and unforgettable experience and I think noone regretted being back slightly late after this amazing afternoon tour.

- Hendrik SchultzTour at 10:00:

Report from Hafsúlan: We headed out from Reykjavík in good weather. We started by going to Akurey and taking a look at all the puffins. Then we headed out to look for some whales. We hadn't sailed for long when we saw the first Minke Whale. We sailed through the same area we spotted this first whale. We must have seen at least 7 more Minke Whales. Two of these surfaced very close to the boat. We also saw many pods of Harbour Porpoises, probably around 30 individuals in all. The weather was just amazing and the sea so calm which made this tour even better.

-Aldís Erna Pálsdóttir

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: When we started sailing from Reykjavik's harbour this morning, the sea was perfectly calm and everyone was looking very forward to a beautiful tour within faxa bay. On the way out, we shortly visited Akurey, a little island in front of Reykjavik, to have a look at the very cahrismatic Atlantic Puffins. The visibility was very good and it took us just about 20 minutes of sailing until we spotted the black back of a Minke Whale in the distance. As we got closer, we saw it surfacing very close and we thoroughly enjoyed this meeting with the Minke. There were also many seabirds in the area and while watching them, we spotted more and more Minke Whales in the area. In total we have seen between 15 and 20 individuals. Also , we spotted a couple of Harbour Porpoises just about 30 meters from the boat , it was just beautiful to see them surfacing in these calm seas. The amount of Minke Whales we saw today was just so unusual (probably there was lots of fish in the area) that I decided to name June 12 the "Day of the Minke" - hopefully the Minke Whales will show up in these large numbers again on next year's "Minke Day"!¨

- Hendrik Schultz

Birds seen on today's tours: Arctic Terns, Atlantic Puffins, Eider Ducks, Fulmars, Northern Gannets, Greyleg Geese, Razorbills, Common Guillemots, Kittiwakes, Black-backed Gulls.