Wednesday, 21 May 2014

Tour at 17:00Report from Hafsúlan: Fortunately the wind and the swell came down. And after a while sailing surrounded by in the sun possing snowy mountains we spotted our first Minke Whale blow. From then on something interesting to look at was around us in many different directions. Our view was switching in between 4-6 different minkes closer and further away. Two of them surfaced synchronously swimming in a line while a third one was blowing in an other direction. Plunge feeding Northern Gannets, chatty Arctic Terns, flying Atlantic Puffins, resting Common Guillemots and most specially lots of close by surfing Harbour Porpoises. In total we spent over 1 1/2 hours in the same area observing this amazing wildlife.

-Carine

Tour at 13:00Report from Hafsúlan: It was still quite windy as we headed out but the sun was shining. We sailed for about 40 minutes before we spotted the first blow from a Minke Whale. The animal was moving quite fast, took frequent deep dives and surfaced in a totally different area. We got a good look at the minke but it was hard to keep up with the animal so we decided to head further out and see if we would find something more. After only 10 minutes a pod of 4-6 Harbour Porpoises was spotted next to the boat. As we were trying to get a good look at them another minke whale surfaced right behind us. We managed to see that minke whale for a couple of times before it disappeared. After some search another minke whale was spotted, we got a beautiful look at the animal as it surfaced right in front of the boat and seemed to be feeding as there were a lot of birds diving down around the minke. We also spotted a few more pods of harbour porpoises, and actually got a great look at these small and shy cetaceans. It was a fun tour with around 3-4 minke whales and loads of harbour porpoises, along with some very interesting marine birds. The sail was a bit choppy and some could say that we had true Icelandic adventure, with some choppy waves and a lot of whales. -Freydís ÓskTour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The wind was blowing from the north east this morning as we headed out. We had to spend a good amount of time searching before we spotted the first Minke Whale. There were lots of Northern Gannets diving around and it appeared to be feeding. As we went further some more minkes were spotted along with a few pods of Harbour Porpoises. All in all there must have been 4 or 5 minke whales and around 15 to 20 porpoises. A wonderful, bright but windy day out on the Faxaflói bay with a stunning look at the glacier Snæfellsjökull.

-Arnór Tumi

Birds seen on today's tours include: Puffins, fulmars, arctic terns, northern gannets, manx shearwaters, common guillemots, arctic skuas, kittiwakes, black backed seagulls, razorbills