Monday, 22 July 2024
Windeed! This is the weather that whales love!
Welcome faithful reader of our daily post. We were experiencing some decent southwestern, mostly western wind in the morning, which means that the sea was quite rough and those speed boats that went out today got rather wet. The weather did not let us go out with some of the speed boats so we had to cancel 11:00 and 14:00 RIB departures. Afternoon update to this is that it seems to be all settling down to a nice calmy evening and it looks quite promising so far, we have some more departures still
For the boats that went out to find some beautiful wildlife in the morning - there is one thing to say - we did find them, we had 2 Humpback Whales by Hjalteyri and a bit North of it, 1 more Humpback by the Green buoy and also one east of it, that kept travelling in the northwestern direction, it seemed like we are going to witness them uniting together, but time is always flying when you are having fun, so we did not get to see it because we had to head back. We managed to find Piccolo - our favourite Humpback Whale and it breached a few times and did a tail throw, we saw it from few hundred meters, anyway - what a spectacular thing to see. It was worth getting soaked for those who got to see that. Unfortunately, we also had one tour that did not get to see much due to the weather conditions, so we offered them a complimentary ticket. Next time will be more lucky!
In the afternoon we were also lucky to see Humpback Whales. One came to look at us very closely several times. We had the opportunity to see their majestic pectoral fins under the water surface. The white color of the pectoral fins, which appears almost turquoise under the water. They also showed us their tail. The colour and shape of the tail are as unique as a fingerprint for us. We can identify an individual by them.
Hard to say how many individuals we have been observing today, only our research team will find out later on, but it was most definitely at least 4 Humpback Whales so far and also one Minke Whale around the Green Buoy.
On the midnight tour we saw a massive gathering of two different species around North of Hjalteyri, up to 5 Minke Whales and at least 4 Humpback Whales, we did not know where to look first, it was quite a sight to have so many whales surrounding us and the sea was now really calm. Soothing moments we have had with these giants.
We managed to also peek at some Harbour Porpoises on the way back to the harbour.
What a great day. We can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring.
Text & Photos: David, Lenca, Jacob
Departures: Classic - 0900, 1000, 1300, 1400, 1700 & 2030. Express - 1000 & 2100 O’Clock.