Thursday, 03 May 2018

We went out on one RIB boat and one tour on Holmasol under sunny sky, with quite a strong wind blowing in the fjord. Still, since the wind came from the west, we were thankful for the shelter the mountains provided. We were also surprised by a bit of snow here and there, but luckily these turned out to only be momentarily. On the morning tour we saw a few harbour porpoises and one minke whale briefly, before we could spent some nice time with a minke in front of Dalvik. In the afternoon however, we were looking, but did not find any cetaceans. Hence, we gave out complimentary tickets to all of our passengers to come again wit us here or in Reykjavik.

Text by Babsi Neubarth and pictures by Anna Gunnarsdottir

Wednesday, 02 May 2018

The sea was very calm today, overcast sky and very little wind. Perfect whale watching conditions! We first saw a minke whale about 10 min out of the harbour. It was changing directions quite a lot and popped up behind us. Surprise! As we streamed a little further we came across a humpback whale. It did a few shallow dives before going off to the deep. Our third encounter of the day was a small pod of 6-8 shy harbour porpoise. The size difference between the whales and the porpoise is rather impressive. Try comparing a human to an elephant and you are close... Lucky last, we came across the humpback whale we saw earlier, about 1km away from Akureyri harbour. So nice to see us off! No flukes today but some very good encounters and a great morning on the water!

Photos by Babsi Neubarth and text by Liza Roger.

Tuesday, 01 May 2018

First of May started cold and windy, but super sunny with fantastic landscape all around us. We went out on one afternoon tour and had a true porpoise party. 30-40 harbour porpoises spent almost half an hour with us. It was spectacular and surprising to see them behaving like dolphins, coming close to check us out and diving all around the boat. Often you could even see their full cuteness under the water. Afterwards we looked for some bigger wildlife, but did not find any more cetaceans. Still, we had a blast on this day full of porpoises.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Monday, 30 April 2018

Calm seas and only a little wind mixed with some rain greeted us this morning. We sailed out from Akureyri on our beloved Holmasol and were pleasantly surprised to find a minke and a humpback whale just North of Hjalteryi. The humpback looked quite thin so we believe it just must have arrived fro its annual migration and is glad to be in the food rich waters of Iceland again. Then we spotted a blow around 3 km further North. We encountered a familiair fluke there, the humpback Victoria is back in the fjord. We know it from May 2017 and were really happy to see it. Today's tour was also a tour full of porpoises throughout. A great last day of April.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Sunday, 29 April 2018

Today we had a lovely sail on our 9 o‘clock tour from the harbor at Árskógssandur. The sun was up lightening up the fjord showing all it's beauty. Few minutes in the tour we had a nice encounter with a small pod of the harbor porpoises. North of Hrísey we noticed a spout coming out of the water and there we saw a Humpback whale and had a great time with it. This whale that swam in our fjord four days ago and has been seen regularly ever since.  Today one of our passenger named this Humpback 'Snorri.' On our way back we again had a nice time with the harbor porpoises again before sailing back in the harbor at Árskógssandur. Fantastic day here in our fjord today. 

Text and pictures by Anna Gunnarsdóttir   

Saturday, 28 April 2018

Memorys of winter followed us on our tour today. It was snowing here and there and a cold northern wind was blowing in our faces so that our overalls were put to good use. Initially we had hoped to find yesterday's humpback whale again, but turned out to encounter a minke whale instead. A few times we got really close and could even see its snout. These minkes sure seem cute compared to the big humpback whales. Afterwards we still had fun with about a total of 20 porpoises. A nice day today. Hopefully it will be warmer soon.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Friday, 27 April 2018

We went on two lovely tours today and spent some quality time with yesterdays humpback whale. In the morning we went on the RIBs and in the afternoon on Hafsulan. Sailing conditions were very pleasant with only some swells and the sun warming our faces. We came very lose multiple times and simply had fun. Summer is almost here and we are ready for many wonderful cetacean moments.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Thursday, 26 April 2018

Today was surely beautiful to go out whale watching, the sun was up giving us it's warmth on our way out the fjord on our 1 o'clock tour. We sailed from the harbor at Árskógssandur all the way to the entrance of the fjord. The sea state was good but closer to the open sea we had some swells. On a day like today when the sun it up casting a beautiful lights over the mountains it's so nice to enjoy the view on our way out the fjord. At the entrance  of Eyjafjörður we saw a Humpback whale and it looks like this is a new individual, it has never been seen here in the fjord that we know of, and with this individual we had quite the good time, it came up few times and once close to our boat. Amazing day to say the least!

Text and pictures by Anna Gunnarsdóttir

Wednesday, 25 April 2018

Finally a sunny day with some wind awaited us in the fjord. We went out and from the beginning on we saw loads of cute harbour porpoises, they would accompany us throughout the tour, different pods of course. All the whale watching boats who were out, worked together to find some cetaceans and towards the end of the tour we were successful. A minke whale was spotted at the south end of Hrisey. The individual turned out to be rather small and not easy to spot. We tried for a while and got a few looks, however this minke remained difficult so that we gave out complimentary tickets to all our passengers. Next time there will hopefully be more larger cetaceans around.

Text and picture by Babsi Neubarth

Tuesday, 24 April 2018

Today we sailed from the harbor at Árskógssandur on our 9 o'clock tour. We had a cold breeze on the way out the fjord so our warm overalls, heated saloon and hot drinks available on board were highly appreciated. The sea state was good today giving us a smooth boat ride. North of Hrísey we saw a fluke go down and there we encountered the humpback whale Cloud and had a lovely time with this individual. Cloud was coming up every one to three minutes to the surface giving us a great time. Another successful day here in Eyjafjörður with our amazing sea giants. 

Text Anna Gunnarsdóttir and pictures by Sara Alexandra Enquist.  

Monday, 23 April 2018

One RIB boat and one tour on the big boat enabled our passengers with a close and personal encounter with Cloud the humpback whale. The temperatures have been dropping lately so that our red and comfy overalls were put into good use. We had to battle some swells o the way out, but our experience with the Eyjafjord humpback made totally up for it. As can be expected at this time of the year, te whale was busy feeding all around us, displaying its gorgeous fluke multiple times. We are looking forward towards a summer full of cetaceans!

Text by Babsi Neubarth, text and pictures by Anna and Babsi

Sunday, 22th April 2018

Early in the morning we sailed out the fjord on our 10 o‘clock rib tour. We had quite the fun today, south of Hrísey we encountered a humpback and before we knew they were two in the area. One of them showed it's fluke when diving down and there for we could identify it, that is a whale we have named Cloud, an individual that has not been seen in the fjord by us since November last year. Later on our 1 o'clock tour we sailed out on our bigger boat to see what cetaceans we might have in the afternoon in the fjord. Again we met Cloud but now north of Hrísey. The whale was very active, giving us a great time as it was tail slapping and coming up quite a lot to breath and showing us it's amazing fluke on the way. Amazing and successful day here in our fjord today with these fun individuals.

Text and pictures by Anna Gunnarsdóttir

Saturday, 21 April 2018

Our tour at one o'clock started a bit rainy but in good spirit. We sailed out from Akureyri with some wind blowing in or faces, but wrapped up in our overalls this did not stop us from enjoying the fresh Icelandic air outside on deck. Right out of Hauganes we encountered quite a few harbour porpoises. It must have been at least 30 individuals. True cuties, we got to see them on three occasions during the tour. Unfortunately these were the only cetaceans that we saw today an therefore gave out complimentary tickets. We wish our returning passengers more luck on their next whale watching tour.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Friday, 20th April 2018

Early in the morning we sailed out the fjord on our 10 o'clock rib boat tour. We had quite the adventure today. North of Hjalteyri we encountered two Sei Whales that seemed to be feeding. Sei Whales have a unique feeding technique, what they do is skim and swallow the surface animals such as krill and other tiny marine animals. We had quite the joyful time with these amazing individuals. Later today we sailed again out on a bigger boat from the harbor at Árskógssandur at 1 o'clock to see what we might find. Close to Hjalteyri we encountered few pods of the Harbor Porpoises. Some pods were playing in the bow waves from our boat and others coming up to the surface few times before diving down. We had a good time with these individuals. Unfortunately we did not see any bigger cetaceans in the tour so we offered our passenger a complimentary tickets to come again for free within two years, both within our company here in Akureyri as well as in Reykjavík and hope they will be able to see the giant whales in their next tour. 

Text by Anna Gunnarsdóttir and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Thursday, 19th April 2018

Today is the first day of summer here in Iceland, and on our 9 o'clock tour today we had such a good weather. The sun was already up lightening up the fjord and giving us it's warmth as we sailed out. Closer to the open sea we had some swells and unfortunately some of the passenger got sea sick but when we turned the boat around we had much smoother ride back to Árskógssandur. Sadly we did not see any cetaceans in our fjord today, and therefor we offered our passenger complimentary ticket to come again for free within two years. Both within our company here in Akureyri as well as in Reykjavík and hope they will be able to see these amazing creatures next time. 

Text and pictures by Anna Gunnarsdóttir

Wednesday, 18 April 2018

Windy, sunny and ever changing times can be expected currently in Eyjafjördur. Today we searched the area between Akureyri and Hrisey very thoroughly while enjoying long and funny swells. We noticed that the bird activity in the fjord is increasing constantly at the moment and hence we believe the density of food must be growing steadily. Hopefully this means soon more whales in the fjord, as we were not successful this time. We hope that the complimentary tickets we gave out to our passengers, will enable them to have a fantastic cetacean encounter in the future.

Text and picture by Babsi Neubarth

Monday, 16th April 2018

Today we sailed out on a lovely day from the harbor at Árskógssandur on our one o'clock tour. The sun was already up as we sailed out the and with it we had a smooth ride. We sailed out almost all the fjord and enjoyed the sightseeing on the way. On our way back we had a cold breeze and our warm overalls, heated saloon and hot drinks available on board were highly appreciate while we sailed back to the harbor at Akureyri. Unfortunately the whales were not in the fjord today so we gave our passenger complimentary tickets to come again for free within two years both here in Akureyri and within our company in Reykjavík and hope they will be able to see the whales next time. 

Text and picture by Anna Gunnarsdóttir

Sunday, 15 April 2018

Sunny Sunday and fantastically calm seas with almost no wind accompanied us throughout our tour in the morning. We left from Akureyri with sun in our faces. It was the warmest day we had in April so that our red overalls were not even needed by all passengers. All the way past Hrisey and Hrolfssker we went, but the only wildlife we encountered were many northern fulmars, black-headed gulls and kittiwakes. Towards the end of the trip we saw a small pod of 5-6 harbour porpoises. These cuties were fun to watch, nevertheless we gave out complimentary tickets to give the cetacean search another shot for free. We will certainly go out tomorrow and try again to reunite with the Eyjafjord humpbacks.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Friday, 13 April 2018

A bit windy, but dry day awaited us in the fjord this afternoon. From time to time we got to enjoy the sun for a few moments, before she lost the battle against the clouds. Still, we were eager to get out to search for wildlife from Hrisey to Akureyri. We looked and searched, but unfortunately, Friday the 13th did really turn out to be an unlucky day since we did not find a single fin. Hence, we gave out complimentary tickets to everyone onboard and hope to welcome them again for free in Akureyri or Reykjavik.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Thursday, 12th April 2018

This morning we sailed out on a beautiful day on our 9 o'clock tour from Árskógssandur. It was a delight seeing the fjord wake up so to speak, with the sun coming up casting a beautiful light on the mountains and brightening up the fjord. We sailed out to the entrance of Eyjafjörður and enjoyed the sightseeing on the way. On our way back close to Hrísey we encountered a pod of Harbor Porpoises and had a good time with them. We offered out passengers a complimentary ticket to come again with us for free within two years, both here in Akureyri and within our company in Reykjavík and hope they will see the giant whales next time. 

Text and picture by Anna Gunnarsdóttir