Wednesday, 15 May 2013

Tour at 17:00

Later in the day, we sailed out for a 5 pm tour for the first time in this year. The wind had strengthened and when we were leaving the harbour, we were facing the North Atlantic Ocean. However, everyone seemed to enjoy the little rollercoster ride in Faxa Bay. We ried really hard this evening and scanned a big area but even though we saw many beautiful seabirds such as Atlantic Puffins (particularly on the Island Akurey, but also on the open sea), Arctic Terns and the impressive Northern Gannets, we did not find any whales on this last tour of the day. The positive attitude and enthusiasm of our passengers  as well as the wonderful landscape of Faxa bay, made this trip a wonderful time on sea even without seing whales and everyone got complimentary tickets to join one of our future tours. See you soon and "takk fyrir" daginn to all of you!

Tour at 13:00

In the afternoon, we headed out towards Akurey first to have a closer look on the island's Atlantic Puffins. There were quite some puffins around and all of us were very enthusiastic to see these cute black and white birds. When we continued our journey towards Faxa bay, it took us about half an hour of sailing until we spotted a Minke Whale close to a flock of feeding Northern Gannets. Then it was just a matter of short moments that several more more Minke Whales surfaced in the closer surroundings it must have been up to ten different individuals. So many Minke Whales feeding in one area with feeding Northern Gannets and Arctic Terns in the background was just amazing to see and reminded abit of a BBC documentary - a great afternoon tour full of "Minke" surprises!

Tour at 09:00

When we sailed out this morning, the sea was nice and calm and even though the sky was a bit clouded it was a quite nice icelandic morning. Before heading out towards Faxa bay, we decided to visit Akurey one of the islands where the Atlantic Puffins breed on to have a closer look at these beautiful birds of the Auk family. After enjoying being very close to the puffin's island, we headed out towards the bay and only a few minutes later were surprised by a group of 5 to 10 Harbour Horpoises. It was very nice to see the sun glare on their little dorsal fins and everyone seemed to enjoy the moment. A few minutes later, we spotted a Minke Whale in the distance, but the Minke did not show up a second time so we went on to find something else. And there they were a big group of White-beaked Dolphins (30 to 50 in total), which we thoroughly enjoyed when they came very close to the boat and we could see their nice dark and white color patterns right below the water surface shortly before surfacing. The cherry on the Cake was a Minke Whale showing up just 100 meters from our boat  on our way back to Reykjavik - what a wonderful morning tour!

Birds seen on today's tours: Northern Gannets, Arctic Terns, Fulmars, Manx Shearwaters, Brent Geese, Greylag Geese, Eider Ducks, Atlantic Puffins, Common Guillemots, Cormorants, Oystercatchers, Black-backed Gulls, Black-headed Gulls, Kittiwakes

- Hendrik Schultz