Thursday, 12 October 2017

Probably the whales did not feel much difference today whether being under the water or coming up for air since it has been raining in Eyjafjördur almost nonstop for two days now. This did not stop us from going out and searching for whales of course and we did not have to look for long. Right outside of Svalbardseyri we met King Louis and a minke whale. We spent some time with these two before heading further out where we were surprised by many harbour porpoises. It must have been at least 15-17 individuals. The rest of the tour we did enjoy with Harley Dafinson and a new individual which will be known as ‘Heidi’ from now on. We are looking forward to tomorrow, hopefully this rain will be stopping soon.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Wednesday, 11 October 2017

The rain was our company today, though the sea was beautifully quiet. Moreover, we didn't have to sail far north to find our beloved humpbacks. About two miles south the geothermal vents buoy we spotted many groups of harbour porpoises, and two well know whales, "King Louis" and "Harley Dafinson". They were swimming very synchronised and for our great surprise "Harley Danfinson" just breached close to us, the entire body! Swimming close to these whales, but not together, was our famous "whistle blow" whale named "Alli". The whales were just swimming around us all the tour, and our boat Hólmasól was practically stopped for a long time. A genuinely enjoyable wet day out with our humpbacks and porpoises.

Text and pictures by Manu Bassoi.

Tuesday, 10 October 2017

Seven humpbacks whales made our three tours today a great experience for everybody onboard. Over night the temperatures had dropped below zero so that we were greeted by crisp, but fresh sea air in the morning. Almost no wind made sailing very pleasant and the sun slowly warmed us up. All was set for a good whale day when we spotted the first blows around the biggest geo-thermal vent. King Louis, Pepper, Millenium Falcon and Manu did spend some time together so that we stayed with the group of four for a while. However, it was Harley Dafinson which took us by surprise with fantastic tail slaps and lobs on the afternoon tour. Once more we can only be grateful for the wildlife we get to enjoy here in Eyjafjördur.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Monday, 9 October 2017

Eyjafjördur today was overcast, but still with beautifully flat seas. From early tour till late tour we always observed about five to seven humpback whales including "Cascade", "Jackson", "King Louis", "Harley Dafinson", "Syri", and "Pepper". They were either swimming alone or in pairs, but of course "Jackson" was always solo. The whales were raising the flukes several times, and all them were northern of Hjaltery or in front of Grenivík. We also could enjoy a tail lobbing today! Some groups of harbour porpoises also made their appearance in the tours as well a minke whale. 

Text and pictures by Manu Bassoi.

Sunday, 8 October 2017

We sailed northwards with extraordinary conditions, there was almost no wind, so the water was glassy as a mirror. About twenty minutes sailing we encountered a minke whale, which was a pleasant surprise as minkes are not so common in the fjord. After, just northern Hjalteri we encountered the humpback whale called "Cascade". The whale was relaxed and just swimming around the boat and showing its fluke several times. Continuing our tour, what a surprise to meet our favourite humpback "Jackson". This humpback was even more relaxed than "Cascade", as we the boat was practically stopped all the time and this whale was moving around us, and sometimes the animal came just beside of the vessel to the surprise of all! The passengers could hear very well the blow of "Jackson" and see its incredible and big pectoral flipper. Moreover, the landscape of the fjord is marvellous now with the snow on the top of the mountains.  What beautiful pictures, from the whales and Eyjafjördur!

Text and pictures by Manu Bassoi.

Saturday, 7 October 2017

We sailed out with no wind again, luckily smooth seas. However, we had to sail out all the way to Grenivík to spot our first humpback whale. It was the humpback called "Cascade", whom we had regularly encountered last month. The whale seemed to be travelling, moving far under the water and surfacing short periods of time. Luckily after "Cascade", we were able to spot a group of three beautiful humpbacks. One of these whales we call "Pepper", but the other two appear to be new humpbacks in our catalogue! What a great news. Moreover, on our way back we got a bit of a surprise when we encountered another species of cetacean, a minke whale. 

Text and pictures by Manu Bassoi.

Friday, 6 October 2017

The weather was cold and overcast which felt like we are genuinely no more in the spring. However, no wind at all, which makes fabulous seas. As we passed Hjalteyri, we still had to sail northern as we started seen the whales just after Grenivík. There we saw many, but many blows - humpback whales. We estimated at least about 20 to 25 humpbacks and many groups of two, three and four, and many individual whales. Moreover, in the middle of these humpbacks, we could spot a minke whale. We could stay a good time appreciating this "humpback's ball" before heading back to Akureyri.

Photos and text by Manu Bassoi.

Thursday, 5 October 2017

We sailed out with incredible conditions, the water was smooth as a mirror and there was almost no wind. Yesterday a lot of snow had been falling in the mountains so all the mountain tops were covered in white. So the views in the fjord were breathtaking today. We had to sail out to Grenivik to spot our first whale. But once we arrived there we spotted many different humpback whales, both tours we saw at least 10 whales. There were two groups of 3 whales together and 4 animals moving by themselves. On top of that we also spotted a Minke whale that came close to the boat. Because the conditions were so calm we could hear the whales before we even saw them. One of the humpback whales seemed to be having a cold making a sort of whistling sound when breathing in and out.

Text Anouk de Plaa and pictures Anouk de Plaa.

Wednesday, 4 October 2017

Humpback whales spotted in Eyjafjord today!

Tuesday, 3 October 2017

No wind in the morning, so the sea was spectacularly flat. The humpback whales were also awesome, and just southern off Hjaltery we spot three groups of humpbacks. The first group were our know whales "Manu", "Bear", and "King Louis". They were diving for a long time, though when at the surface they were swimming slowly and showed many times their beautiful flukes for the cameras of our passengers. The other groups were composed of one and two whales. The single whale was "Harley Dafinson", and the other two animals just left the area before we could go closer. Despite the increased wind in the afternoon tour, the whales were there, and also we were! 

Text and pictures by Manu Bassoi.

Monday, 2 October 2017

We sailed out with low hanging clouds and an icy wind. We did not have to sail far today already after 20 minutes we encountered our first whale. When scanning the area we realized that there were no less then 7 humpback whales in the area! This was the first time in at least a month that we encountered that many whales this close to Akureyri. 4 animals were moving as a group and 3 other animals were moving solitary.  One of the individuals was Jackson, showing us its snake moves and covering us in whale breath. The group of 4 whales also surfaced many times right next to the boat. On our afternoon tour we spotted large splashes in the distance, a whale was breaching, jumping completely out of the water. When waiting for the whale to come back to the surface it breached right next to the boat.

Text Anouk de Plaa and pictures Babsi Neubarth

Sunday, 1 October 2017

The first day of October started off really foggy on our morning tour but with calm seas. Even though one could not see further than 200 meters at times, we managed to find several humpback whales. They came very close to the boat, however due to the limited visibility it was quite tricky to keep track of all the different individuals. There must have been at least six different whales around. On the afternoon tour the fog had lifted so that we first met King Louis and a minke whale before heading to the area where we would spend the majority of our time with 5-6 different humpback whales. From far we saw two breaches and were already super happy, when two whales decided to perform a double breach less than 50 meters away from Holmasol. It was absolutely stunning and surprising because it came so unexpected. The start of a hopefully golden October certainly has been successful.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Saturday, 30 September 2017

We sailed out with amazing conditions, the water was smooth as a mirror and there was almost no wind. The views of the fjord were stunning on both tours. We got an amazing surprise this tour, when we came close to Grenivik it was like we became part of a whale party. There were literally humpback whales everywhere, we saw around 20 animals! They were moving in groups and pairs and were very busy feeding, changing direction a lot and diving much. There were also three Minke whales in the area. We never had to wait for whales to come back up, because the moment animals went down other animals came up. It was an incredible day in Eyjafjordur!

Text Anouk de Plaa and pictures Anouk de Plaa and Manu Bassoi

Friday, 29 September 2017

Humpback whales spotted on today's tours out of Akureyri!

Thursday, 28 September 2017

Dry is an adjective that was forsaken today, as the sky decided to drench us all around the day! While making the tours a bit less comfortable, the rain did not harm at all our prospects of whale watching! We got to meet two individuals of humpback whales at the same spot than yesterday! We found Harley Dafinson, that recently had his/her new entry in our catalogue, and King Louis, that we know from last year. Haarley was the most energetic one, displaying a fantastic tail lob on several occasions! So in the end, despite the weather we had a great time, and the overalls we have on board obviously played a big part in that. Let it be known that Eyjafjordur's wonders are still breathtaking in rainy conditions!

Pictures by Anna Gunnarsdòttir, text by Guillaume Calcagni 

Wednesday, 27 September 2017

Sadly, our morning tours were cancelled today due to adverse weather. However, our afternoon tour went out and proved to be a nice trip. Not so far away from Akureyri, we spotted our known humpback whale called "King Louis". The whale was swimming nicely and showing the fluke several times, and all eyes and cameras onboard Holmasol were prepared for these moments.  Afterwards, we encountered our second humpback, actually a new whale for us which we named as "'Harley Dafinson". This humpback gave us a private show with some nice tail lobbing. At the end of the tour, the whales joined to each other, and our last view was the two humpbacks swimming together. Despite the morning weather, our afternoon tour was delightful. 

Text by Manu Bassoi and pictures by Manu Bassoi and Guillaume Calcagni.

Tuesday, 26 September 2017

We sailed out with great conditions, the water was calm and the wind was almost warm. We had to make quite a trip to find the whales but with the wonderful views of the Eyjafjordur that was no problem. We found the humpback whales near Hrisey, the island inside of the fjord. During both tours we spotted at least 10 animals, a group of 4 animals, a group of 3 animals and 3 animals moving by themselves. The whales were all around us popping up very close to the boat and swimming under the boat. We were literally surrounded by humpback whales, it was amazing. During the first tour we were even treated to some tail lobbing behaviour of two different whales. When a humpback whale tail lobs, it throws the back part of its body out of the water which creates a huge splash and a big noise. A number of the individuals we encountered were familiar, we recognized Jackson, Millenium Falcon, Adam, Max and Tattoo. It was a wonderful day with lots of whales.

Text Anouk de Plaa and pictures Babsi Neubarth

Monday, 25 September 2017

The golden autumn continues here in Eyjafjördur with sunshine, not too much wind and many humpback whales. We went out on two tours till the lower end of Hrisey and encountered nine whales in the morning and six whales in the afternoon. Both times we had super nice encounters with a group of five whales who came really, really close and were simply impressive and graceful while going for a deep dive. Very interestingly for us, the humpback whales called bear could be found on both tours in a group of five, but each time with different individuals. We also reached a milestone in our research today! We sighted the 100th humpback whale of the season which marked the 200th overall at the same time! So far this individual does not have a name yet. Hence we are looking for suggestions. Please let us know if you have a good idea for a special name, for this very special whale.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Sunday, 24 September 2017

All tours CANCELLED today!

Saturday, 23 September 2017

Absolutely no words for the tour today. After thirty minutes sailing from Akureyri, we had our first sight, a humpback whale. This whale is our known buddy called "Fjall". Just at the same area, a minke whale showed off.  However, the best moment ever was after these two sightings. As we were sailing north towards the area where we have seen two more humpback whales, suddenly came our best moment: a marvellous group of orcas! Majestic and magnificent animals! There were two big males and also young and very young animals. We believed that this pod was about ten to twelve orcas. But not just to see them was enough, we could testify the orcas hunting harbour porpoises. There were jumps, tail lobbing, underwater activity, and further, we could point out a piece of flesh in an orca's mouth and some blood in the water. Today has been filled with a lot of excitement with this unique encounter with orcas in Eyjafjördur. 

Text and pictures by Manu Bassoi.