Wednesday, 19 August 2015

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: This almost forgotten feeling we got during most of our trip, could it be warmth ? At least, it was the closest thing to it that Iceland can offer, and we enjoyed it with bliss ! We were traveling on a smooth ocean, and for this time the overalls were only optional. Wanting really bad to see Þröstur again, we steamed right away toward the area where we saw it last time. We even had to snob a pod of 6-8 white-beaked dolphins surfacing in the distance ! Passengers could have a glimpse of them but unfortunately only from far away. But this sacrifice is not a big deal, considering the treat we got afterward. In our wandering to find our friend Þröstur we met a minke whale, spotted by one of our researchers called Lucia. This one was apparently in a hurry, since it surfaced only one time close to us and then stormed away and never appeared again. Unshaken by this difficult individual, we patiently kept on looking all around the boat until Tess, our second researcher on this boat today, saw a big blow in the distance. Today, our "femme fatale" duo had the eyes of the eagle ! While we were slowly closing in, another minke whale came to greet us. This one was far less shy than the first minke, and we could have great looks at it ! After this cetacean vanished away, we finally came across a humpback whale, Þröstur was still here ! And he decided to let us have a great time. First he was moving very slowly, very relaxed, and we could follow it easily. At some point, it became a little bit more energetic and breached 2 times in a row ! Passengers, as well as crew members, were simply amazed. We then left this humpback after spotting what turned out to be another minke whale, that also let us approach for some time. Eventually we had to head back home, until our way was a cute by another reckless minke, that clearly was surprised to find us this close and disappeared straight away after this event. The rest of our travel was windy, but quiet. This day was clearly one to not be missed ! 

- Guillaume Calcagni

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The perfect weather was still intact or even improved a little with sunshine. The sea was flat and we could see miles away in the distance. After 45 minutes of sailing we encountered our first pod of white-beaked dolphins for the tour. It was 4 dolphins and they were elusive going for a deeper dive as soon we got close. We decided to leave them alone since we knew we had more to find further out. Next pod of dolphins was amazing, 5-6 individuals swam underneath us and stayed close to us for some time. After the dolphin action we continued on. We caught up with the humpback whale from this morning and it was still in the same area. Feeding and going for deeper dives constantly. At one point it launched fed out of the surface with an open mouth! We could enjoy this humpback, until it was time to head back. On our way another pod of 7-8 white-beaked dolphins was seen and they were jumping for us! A very nice ending and just in time before the weather changed a little bit and the sun got covered by clouds.

- Marcus Bergström  

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Like the morning tour, we barely had any wind and swell creating ideal conditions. It didn't take a long time until we spotted a group of 7-8 white-beaked dolphins. We got close to them and saw them surfacing a few times but then they started traveling away from us and changed their direction frequently. Since they were obviously not in the right mood for whale watching, we left them alone and moved on. We saw a minke whale suddenly pop up next to us; however, it vanished just as quickly as it had appeared. We were searching for the humpback whale quite a long time but then one of our researchers on board saw a large blow and saw we managed to show our passengers also the amazing "Þröstur", a humpback whale we have seen on many tours in the last weeks. It was traveling slowly next to us and in the end we saw it lob-tailing a few times. On our way back to the harbour we encountered another group of 4-5 white-beaked dolphins. 

- Hanna Michel

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: The weather and sea conditions were perfect for whale watching this morning as we had a flat sea with pale sky making the water look almost white. Any black whales surfacing would be easily seen! After just 30 minutes we found our first of 4 species on this tour, we saw a white-beaked dolphin that seemed to be splashing around. This was probably a social behaviour as soon there were around 15 other dolphins around the area! They were jumping constantly near to us and being very spectacular, even playing with the boat when they weren´t busy with each other. Our second species was the minke whales, they were a constant sighting throughout the tour as we saw around 10 minke whales during this tour. We mainly saw these as were heading to a humpback whale sighted in the distance. This was þröstur, the humpback we have been seeing very often for months now. The whale was both relaxing and feeding, surfacing slowly then suddenly lunging out of the water with its mouth open! We spent around 30 minutes watching this big beast travel through the area. Our last species came at the end when we spotted a pod of 5 harbour porpoises travelling through the area, they are normally a shy animal but we actually got to see them as they sped past the front of the boat. This was an incredible tour with boat perfect whales and weather.

- Jack Ball

Tour at 09:00 

Report from Hafsúlan: The weather and sea conditions were perfect for whale watching today with an almost completely flat sea. It still took a while to find our first whale on this tour, though; it was a minke whale that suddenly popped up about 200 m away from our boat. We slowed down and watched it surfacing around as for a few minutes before we moved on. As we were heading further offshore, 2 white-beaked dolphins appeared right in front of us and when we followed them one of them starting jumping out of the water and didn´t stop. After this show we moved on towards other whale watching boats that had spotted a humpback whale and also got to spend some time with this animal. As we were watching it inbetween a flock of birds we also noticed another 2 white-beaked dolphins and also a minke whale in the same area. It was incredible to see so much wildlife all around us; and even on the way back we didn't stop seeing cetaceans until we were fairly close to the harbour. Along the way we saw two more minke whales and three pods of white-beaked dolphins each consisting of 5-8 animals. 

- Hanna Michel

Bird species seen on today´s tours: northern fulmars, northern gannets, kittiwakes, lesser black-backed gulls, greater black-backed gulls, glaucous gulls, atlantic puffins, arctic skuas, arctic terns, common guillemots, razorbills, red-necked phalaropes and manx shearwaters.