Wednesday, 23 July 2014

Tour at 20:30

Unfortunately we had to cancel the evening tour as the weather conditions were getting worse. We are sorry for inconveniences caused.

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: It was quite windy as we headed out. We decided to sail south along the Reykjanes peninsula to avoid the weather and it took us quite long to find something. But finally, after around 80 minutes, a pod of harbour porpoises was found. They were not shy at all and we got some very nice looks. A bit later, a pod of around 5 white-beaked dolphins was spotted. They were very fun and interactive, leaping, breaching and approaching the boat, even diving underneath it. After we left this pod, we searched a large area but for a long while, did not find anything. Finally, towards the end of the tour, a pod of dolphins was spotted again, and it turned out to be the same on that we had seen earlier on the tour. This time, they were busy feeding, changing speed and direction a lot, but took the time to approach us and dive underneath us briefly. On the way back, the wind picked up even more so we were happy to be back in the harbour after an exciting afternoon out.

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: It was safe to say this was a rather odd tour. The weather was the same as the morning as we had a real mix of sun and wind and clouds. First of all we managed to find a Minke Whale after around an hour that was incredibly calm around the boat, possibly resting as it wasn´t moving very much . This was just within 50 metres of the boat too so it was great beginning to the tour, after a short while this whale dived down and didn´t come back so we moved on. Then we had a lot of unsuccessful searching which was looking grim. Then a passenger shouted about seeing something, this turned out to be another minke whale that had just breached out of the water! Unfortunately it only did this once so only a lucky few saw it. That seemed to be the end as we had to head back to harbour. Then as we headed back around 1km away another minke whale decided to breach! 5 times! 5 times! 5 times! Though it was far away it was clearly a minke throwing its entire body out of the water 5 times! A thrilling end to the tour!

- Jack Ball

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The winds had picked up a bit from this morning on this tour. But still, it was relatively warm and we found a pod of white-beaked dolphins quite early on. There were around 6 individuals and they surfaced all around the boat so we managed to get some very nice sightings. After we left the dolphins, we headed east into an area where there had been reports of some other wildlife earlier but once we arrived, it all seemed to be gone. What a shame. We spent a long time looking but nothing showed up. So in the end, it would have been good to get some more sightings, but the sightings that we did have were very nice.

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: The wind was fairly strong but the sea was still flat and we had some nice sunshine during the tour. So we had a real mix of weather this morning! It took some real searching before we got to find our animals for today, we found a pair of Minke Whales that seemed to be travelling together. One was much smaller than the other so it looked like a juvenile with its mother. The mother was more interactive and showed itself a lot more than its juvenile, but we got a good look at both whales. In the distance we saw some big splashes being made, as we got closer we could see this was a minke lunge feeding! When we got closer it stopped but it was still a good sight. After more seaching we couldn´t find any more animals which wasn´t the best end to the tour but it was still a successful trip where we got to see two minke whales.

- Jack Ball

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The winds were calm when we left the harbour in Reykjavík this morning. After around an hour, we found a pod of white-beaked dolphins that appeared to be feeding. They were changing their direction and speed frequently and came up quite close so that we got some very good looks. There were around 6 of them together. After a while, they stopped surfacing and we headed further. After a bit, we found a group of diving northern gannets and approached it. Indeed, there were two to three minke whales in the area and they were obviously feeding. They were coming far out of the water surface and showing off nicely. In the end, we ran out of time and had to head back to the city. The weather stayed nice throughout most of the tour despite some rain.

-Arnór Tumi

Birds seen on todays tour include: Atlantic Puffin, Northern Fulmar, Northern Gannet, Manx Shearwater, Arctic Skua, Arctic Tern, Eider Duck, Common Guillemot, Razorbill, Kittiwake, Black-Backed Gull.