Wednesday, 3 June 2015

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Leaving the harbour of Sandgerði turned out a bit rough. This didn´t change until we passed the tip of the Reykjanes peninsula. Traveling in the Faxaflói bay on our way to the Reykjavik harbour was a great ride, for one because the swell decreased making our travels smoother. Also, we quickly encountered a pod of orcas with 4-5 individuals, feeding on the same fish as the big flock of birds that was following them. The group had a strong variety of animals, a calf, it´s mother, at least one young male and one very big male individual. We had a very good time following them, taking loads of pictures until we needed to head back home to Reykjavik. On our way back we spotted one harbour porpoise and had a picture- worth sight at the back of the boat, looking at the sun reaching through the clouds and giving as a great view of the Snæfellsjökull.

- Michaela Buchbauer

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Still excited from the morning tour we went out again from Grindavik looking for the animals we spotted in the morning, that were traveling on the Reykjanes peninsula. We were going towards Sandgerði, since the weather changed throughout this afternoon, making the boat ride rougher then in the morning. We were hoping to encounter cetaceans on our travels, exploring the south west Icelandic waters. We had a quick sighting with 3 white- beaked dolphins traveling in the other direction. They were gone as fast as they appeared, so we kept on searching for other individuals. Unfortunately the short encounter with the dolphins was the only sighting of cetaceans on this tour, this is why we offered our passengers a complimentary ticket, valid for two years.

- Michaela Buchbauer

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: We decided to search the seas off of Grindavík again today, it was absolutely stunning, the sea was calm, blue clear skies, the landscape breath-taking. The amount of birdlife was also amazing. We first traveled south west to where our other whale watching boat had spotted a minke whale, we were on our why whilst the other boat was starting to head home. On there way they came across two young female killer whales/orca so we changed course and it took us 20 minutes to reach the area. They seemed disinterested in us and just swam west with about 400-500m meters between them both. After a couple of nice surfaces 50-100m from us they dived down and was lost even though we searched the area thoroughly. We went further west towards the vast amount of fishing boats situated off the headland but no splash, blow or black back was encountered. It was only on our way back to port that, closer to the coast that we spotted a minke whale, spotted in the binoculars heading our way. It was a bit difficult to see to begin with but in the end all the passengers got a great look. I nice relaxing cruise along the south coast. 

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: This very beautiful, sunny and calm morning we went out from the harbour in Grindavik in search of cetaceans. The weather coudn´t have been any better and so we started our tour full of energy traveling west on the Reykjanes peninsula. It didn´t take long until we spotted a minke whale. Even though this individual was moving around a lot, we managed to follow it for quiet a long time. Our luck lasted for the whole trip, spotting a group of orcas, 2 adults and 1 calf. As we were running out of time, we had to go back to Grindavik´s harbour at some point, leaving the orcas with our other whale watching boat Elding, that just arrived.

- Michaela Buchbauer

Birds spotted on today's tours include: northern gannets, kittiwakes, black backed gulls, northern fulmars, puffins, manx shearwaters, common guillemots, puffins, arctic terns, arctic skuas, razorbills, glaucous gulls, cormorants, oystercatcher.