Wednesday, 15 June 2016

Tour at 20:30

Report from Eldey: What a wonderful start for our midnight tour. The sea conditions were absolutely perfect, no swell and with the cloudy sky the surface looked bright. These are optimal conditions for spotting cetaceans and we had an easy time spotting animals even in great distance form the boat today. The tour started with 3-4 harbour porpoises that we stopped with for only few minutes. Shortly after we left the porpoises we spotted dolphins 800 meters south. These were 10-12 white beaked dolphins that were scattered over a large area. We could stop the boat and listen to the breath of the dolphins when they surfaced around our boat. This was by far the best sighting of the tour. Shortly after we left the dolphins we spotted a minke whale, unfortunately it was elusive and was never seen again. We got a call from a near boat of two minke whales. We went there but the same thing happened, we only saw the minke whales 2-3 times before they disappeared. It was not until we were almost back to harbour when we spotted the minke whale that gave us a good show. It surfaced few time within 150 meters distance so it was easy for everyone to get a good look at it. On the way back we enjoyed the life music on board. 

-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir 

Tour at 17:00

Report from Eldey: Our evening tour today turned out to be a bit difficult. The good news were that the sea conditions had improved again after the kind of rough afternoon tours. The sea was flat and the sun was slowly making its way towards the horizon. On our way out in the bay we first saw 2-3 Harbour porpoises, mainly the splashes they made at the surface. A little further out we came across a single white-beaked dolphin - pretty unsual for this social species. It stayed around us and gave us some nice views on its big dorsal fin and dark back with a white stripe. After spending a while in the company of this curious individual, we decided to move on and look for something else. About 10 minutes later we saw the big blow of an animal in some distance on front of us. We approached the area and waiting for some time for this animal to come up again, however, we didn´t see anyrthing. Again, we moved on in hope to find a less shy animal. Another minke whale was in the same area and indeed it came up once pretty close to us and right in front of the boat where everyone was looking. Unfortunately, also this individual was not seen again. However, one of our passengers spotted a few splashes several hundred meters away from us and we went over there to check it out. It must have been some more white-beaked dolphins jumping out of the water but we didn´t see any signs of them. Looking all around us we moved on still hoping to find some approachable whales or dolphins. Then, finally, another minke whale surfaced only about 150 m away from us! Since it seemed to be heading over to a small flock of feeding sea birds, we slowly got closer as well and that´s exactely where this minke whale came up a few moments later! It was obviously feeding together with the birds and came up in the same spot going in different directions a few more times. That was a well deserved reward for being so patient on this tour! We would have liked to spent a few more minutes with this nice minke but we were running out of time and had to go back home. Overall, a difficult tour with a cool and rewarding ending!

- Hanna Michel

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The weather was still really good when we left the harbour but the wind had picked a bit so the sea had became more wavy than before. On our way out in the bay we sighted a pod of harbour porpoises, passing by us really fast. Since it was diffcult to follow them we continued further out to the area where we saw cetaceans previously today. Due to the sea conditions it was a bit hard to spot cetaceans in the afternoon. The passengers were really helpful to scan the horizon, looking for some splases and dorsal fins. After some struggle we had our first sighting of a minke whale. This individual came up a couple of times to breath before it went down for a deeper dive. We waited for a while but we could not find the whale again so we started to search for other species further away. Once again, we found a minke whale, showing up really close to the boat just in front of us. Though, this whale did not want to stay around too long, so we only saw it surfaced 4-6 times before it also went for a deeper dive and we headed off to an area where we saw dolphins earlier today. On our way there we spotted another pod of harbour porpoises. In total we saw about 11-15 harbour porpoies on this tour. We searched for the dolphins and finally we saw one white beaked dolphin close to the boat. I think all on board were really happy to have such a close encounter! With a smile on our faces, the wind in our back and the sun in our eyes we enjoyed the travel back to Reykjavik. What a beautiful day!

- Johanna Bergman 

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: Despite the white caps on the waves and the reflection of the sun in the water, the weather was lovely on this tour. It was a bit hard to spot the animals under such conditions but after some time we succeded! 30 minutes of sailing and there they were: harbor porpoises! at least I counted 3 of them swimming on the right side of the boat. Super cute animals indeed! as we were getting a bit further into the bay the sea conditions remained the same. A bit choppy and a lot of white caps. We were loosing hope to find cetaceans around but, all of a sudden, our captain spotted some dolphins at about 300 meters from the boat. We got super excited and as we were heading for the dolphins the bow started to get more and more crowded with passengers. The captain was completely right! there they were! a couple of pods with at least 12 individuals of white-beaked dolphins. Very social this time. Milling around the boat and showing themselves a lot. Lovely animals too. Right after this beautiful encounter we kept our way further away from land in the search for other species. It took us a couple of flocks of birds without whales around to feel a bit dissapointed...but...out of the blue, there it was! the minke whale. We saw at least 4 individuals in two different encounters. There were most likely feeding around a flock of birds we had seen in the distance before. The birds were the key this time!. After some time watching the minkes we headed back to Reykjavik as we were running out of time. The beautiful ending. Two more pods of habor porpoises with at least 4 individuals. What an amazing farewell. Lovely trip with lovely people on board!

- Jorge Pascual

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: The weather was fantastic today! Flat sea, warm wind and the sun was shining on us. Our first sighing on the tour was a pod of 4-5 harbour porpoises that traveled past us within 100 meters distance, so even though we didn't stop with them it was easy to spot the. Soon another pod of porpoises popped up on the other side. While watching those porpoises we spotted a pod of 4 white beaked dolphins few hundred meters away. This was definitely our best sighting of the tour, we could stop the boat and watch these animals surface all around our boat! They seemed to be in a playfully mood and jumped often around and swam under our boat few time. While heading further out we spotted other pods of dolphins. We wanted to search for larger species so we kept on going further out. 3 minke whales were seen on the tour, two in a more distance but one of them we got a good look at. We watched the minke feeding in an area that seemed to be very lively with many sea birds diving down for food. It was definitely difficult to head back to land when we were out of time, on a day like this when the weather is so perfect it is not easy to leave the bay.

-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: The good weather continues here in the Southwest of Iceland! And this lovely morning tour was once again full of wildlife: First we saw around 10-15 harbour porpoises in front of us and then traveling closer to land and got a nice look at them. Some of them were still around us when a pod of 4-5 white-beaked dolphins appeared in front of us as well. This was probably just a part of a larger group, as there were another 6 dolphins a bit further away but always moving in the same direction. We went from one group to the next and enjoyed these beautiful dolphins coming closer to us and checking us out. They didn't seem to mind our presence as they stayed around us and seemed relaxed. After leaving the dolphins to themselves we soon came across a minke whale. We saw it a few times before it went for a dive and then waited for it to come up again which it did after a few minutes. While watching the minke we saw some more white-beaked dolphins jumping out of the water in some distance. Therefore, we headed over to the dolphins and saw another group of 6 individuals.They may have been feeding in the area as they stayed in one place but going fast in different directions, maybe hunting fish close to the water surface. At some point we decided to head further offshore and saw 3 more minke whales on our way before we started heading back to the harbour and also some flocks of feeding birds which we watched for a few minutes. My personal highlight of the tour was a curious harbour seal. It was sticking its head out of the water to have a look around and starred at us with its big round eyes. Once we could even see it diving next to us and then coming up again and taking another look at us - awesome!

- Hanna Michel

Birds seen on todays tour: northern fulmar, northern gannet, arctic tern, kittiwake, lesser black-backed gull, herring gull, black guillemot, common guillemot, Atlantic puffin, arctic skua.  
 

Status: RUNNING

We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik on a beautiful day. There is some very mild winds from the south-west , and almost no waves out at sea. Hope you are able to join us to see these amazing giants in their natural environment.