Wednesday, 16 April 2014

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan and Elding: The afternoon tour began with more snowfall, but this would soon turn into blue skies and sunshine! You know what they say about Icelandic weather... And the tour would turn out to be great too, it was a four species day! Our first two species were the same as in the morning, we spotted a Minke Whale and some Harbour Porpoises. The porpoise were quite calm and content around us but the minke was still being elusive. We moved on and found two other species that would put on a great show! We found a large pod of White-Beaked Dolphins, 30+ i would say and they were incredibly entertaining! The dolphins were swimming alongside us and underneath us. Then a Humpback Whale which turned out to be Gills, named because of the black lines radiating from the center of the fluke pattern. We have seen Gills now on at least 5 days in April and it was first calalogued in the North of Iceland in 2012. There was also great news from our Elding boat that was in a different area that had the Minke Whale, Humpie. A minke seen on many of our tours last summer. It is incredible to see all of our returning whale safe and sound for another year. The humpback was constantly lunge feeding beside our boat! It was a mesmerising show and one that won´t be forgotten soon!

- Jack and Megan

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan and Elding: A surprise snowfall greeted us this morning as we were given another dose of winter, but the sun was shining too so we had a beautiful scenic day. The sea didn´t match the sky though and the sea conditions were quite swelly, we certainly had an adventure as we sailed out of Reykjavík. And it would take us just over an hour to spot our first species, we found a Minke Whale! This first minke was quite elusive and after surfacing a few times disappeared and wasn´t seen again. We would find at least 3 minke whales during the tour with other seen in the distance, the second one was the best as it surfaced within 50m of the boat a few times before diving down. While we were looking for the whales on several occasions we found pods of Harbour Porpoise (3-5 in each) too but they were quite elusive as usual. The highlight of the tour had to be the bird life though, we were surrounded by Northern Gannets all dive-bombing the water around us. They were a spectacular sight to watch! The sailing back to Reykjavík was much smoother as we sailed with the swell, so we had a comfortable end to the tour.

- Jack and Soffia

Birds seen on today tour include: Northern Gannet, Northern Fulmar, Kittiwake, Glaucous Gull, Black Guillemot, Razorbill, Eider Duck, Black-Backed Gull, Cormorant, Great Northern Diver, Brent Goose.