Wednesday, 13 August 2014

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The sea calmed down even more and also the wind was less strong. There were some light clouds coming up and covering the sun but it was still bright. We stopped first by some diving gannets not far from land but no cetaceans where to be found around them so we continued on. We went out and after some time we saw between birds different kind of splashes which were appearing repeatedly. A pod of around 5 harbour porpoises was hardly breaking through the water surface by swimming fast provoking the splashes. We lost them out of sight but after we turned the boat we noticed more splashes of at least 6 harbour porpoises likely to be the same individuals as before. In a calm sea probably every one would have seen them but not in the conditions of today where just once the actual fin was seen and the rest were mainly splashes indicating us where they were. We hopped to find something bigger later on and so we did. First just a sickle shaped fin broke through the surface but short after we saw as well the long back to make it clear that we found a minke whale. We watched this individual for a few times but after a while we were observing a completely different fin from another minke and this was obviously an other shape as there was the tip missing. We know a minke like this called "Humpie" and we could see this odd shaped fin coming up around us many times from different angles and also often facing us. We got the chance to take several photo id pictures to recognise it. So there were definitively 2 minkes around which we could enjoy.

- Carine Zimmermann

Tour at 14:00Report from Elding: we sailed out into the bay but we had sailed for less than half an hour when we got a great message from our co-workers on the Videy ferry to the effect that a Humpback Whale had been seen close to Videy. We turned the boat around straight away. As we arrived, the whale had not been seen for a while by the boats already present. We joined the search for it but realised that this would be tricky, not only given humpback whales' ability to dive for long but also that this individual did not seem to be about to sell itself cheap. Then another boat found it inside Iceland's busiest cargo harbour in Sundahöfn, just next to Videy, so we went there; when we came, it had just gone down after being seen close to our other boat, Elding II. On went the search and next time someone spotted it, it was next to the boja outside the harbour but once again, all boats lost it. This play of cat and mouse continued for a while more; we searched far and wide around the islands but eventually we had to give up and head back to Reykjavik. All passengers were offered a complimentary return ticket as a result that they can use for any of our whale-watching trips within the next two years.

- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The wind was calming a bit down and as well the swell was a bit less so we tried another route along the north coast of Faxaflói beside Mount Esja passing Hvalfjörður and then we went out southwards. After a while a harbour porpoise appeared for a short time. Later we arrived in a area where every body had the chance to see a minke whale probably feeding as there were a lot of diving gannets around. On our way back to harbour we heard about a humpback whale very close to land and we prolonged our tour a bit to wait for the humpback whale to come up for its next breath after a long dive. He emerged twice in our sight but we mainly saw the blow and just a tiny bit of the body. Then it was really time to reach the harbour.

- Carine Zimmermann

Tour at 10:00Report from Elding: we went out under good weather conditions but soon found that conditions on land can differ greatly from those out at sea. We received some discomfort from the north-eastern wind coming full speed through Hvalfjörður fjord and into the bay. With nothing discovered close to land, we went further out and sailed through some of our favourite whale hotspots. We got reports from other boats of dolphins and minke whales they had seen but lost straight away and unfortunately our own luck was not much different for, with the small exception of 2-3 harbour porpoises seen rushing through the water for a minute or so, we did not see any cetaceans on this tour. All passengers were offered a complimentary return ticket as a result that they can use for any of our whale-watching trips within the next two years.

- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: There was blue sky, sunshine, calm harbour water but wind and swell in Faxaflói. We had great visibility at the landscape of Snæfellsnes and Reykjanes but the ocean visibility was limited due to white caps and waves. We saw a lot of bird life already relatively close to shore especially a lot of northern gannets which have been flying around. We passed through this area of high density of different species of birds looking carefully for fins, splashes, blows or any other sign of cetaceans but there was nothing to be seen. We continued southwards in the calmer coastal waters but a part from more gannets and fulmars every now and then there was not much life to be seen. Finally we managed to have a few very short looks at at least two harbour porpoises. But they are mostly just for a too short time around at the surface to give everybody the chance to watch them. That's why we didn't had to think if we should offer a ticket to come again and have another possibility to meet Faxaflóis cetaceans.

- Carine Zimmermann

Birds seen on today's tours include: Fulmars, manx shearwaters, puffins, arctic terns, arctic skuas, black-headed gulls, northern gannets, lesser black-backed gulls, kittiwakes, common guillemots, black guillemots, cormorants, greylag geese and eider ducks.