Tour at 17:00
A perfect way to end a great day - We had a "full house" on this tour! That's what we call it when we spot all four species of the bay in the same tour: harbour porpoises, white beaked dolphins, minke whales and a HUMPBACK WHALE!!! We haven't seen the humpbacks since the 17th of July this year, so we almost didn't believe it when we got a call saying "Humpback in the area!" :-D We searched and soon spotted a big blow in the distance. Could it be? We headed towards the blow and realized that it was indeed a humpback! Even though we were far away it is clear that when the whale lifts its fluke before deep diving, it is not a minke whale :-) We approached the humpback and saw it lift its fluke several times. I'm not sure who was more excited, the passengers or the crew :-D Now we cross our fingers and hope it will be in the area for some days to come.
Tour at 13:00
Report from Hafsúla: The weather got even better although this was hardly possible. The tour stared by the sightings of jumping harbour porpoises! Then we got to an area with at least thirty minke whales. They were everywhere and we sailed from one whale to another. Many of them came really close to the boat! Fantastic! After that we spotted a group of white-beaked dolphins. We spent a long time with them and they showed a lot of interest in the boat and approached it all the time. They even bow ride several times! This was again a really nice tour!
Report from Elding: The sea was flat on this tour. Really flat. And the clouds reflected in the surface and it was really beautiful :-) This tour was great. We saw two species on this tour; white beaked dolphins and minke whales. The first group of white beaked dolphins that we spotted started avoiding us after a little while. They had with them two cute baby dolphins and were very protective of them. So we didn't want to disturb them and headed to another area. We were still very close to land. We found an area with many many many minke whales, and because of the extremely calm sea they were very easy to observe (no waves fooling us!). They surfaced all around the boat, both close to us and further away. They were everywhere it was really nice! Then towards the end of the tour we spotted another group of white beaked dolphins, and that was a much more active group! They jumped in the air and were very playful. Nice tour!!
Tour at 9:00
Report from Elding After all these windy days we finally got good weather again. The sea was very flat and we had almost no wind, just perfect for whale watching! And indeed, we had a very good tour. At an area where we seldom find whales we spotted many many minke whales. There was a lot of food at the bottom and in the upper part of the ocean. The first minke whales were travelling: fast swimming and diving a longer time. We still could follow them for some while but the whales we spotted later were feeding and stayed calm in the same area! We spotted a nice group of harbour porpoises too, they are usually shy animals. They jumped a lot which we don't see all the time! Later we sailed a bit longer and spotted a nice group of white-beaked dolphins before we left again the area! A very nice time out there!!!
Report from Hafsúlan: It was really nice to have so good conditions as today... finally! There was very little wind and the sea was calm, and despite some rain in the very beginning of the tour it was really nice. First we spotted a group of harbour porpoises, saw them several times surfacing but they weren't very approachable (as usual) so we didn't get very close. But we could see them from a distance of 30-40 meters when they were closest. They are cute animals :-) Then we spotted minke whales, and more minke whales. And then some more ;-) There were really many minke whales in the area and we enjoyed them a lot. Some were surfacing far away, others closer. Some were deep diving but others were just shallow diving and surfacing again and again. It was great when we had shallow diving individuals close to the boat, then we could really observe them well. Really nice tour!