Wednesday, August 20, 2008

GREAT WEATHER + MINKES + DOLPHINS

The weather in Húsavík – and in Iceland in general - has been surprisingly good lately. We have had temperatures of 20-25 degrees, slow winds and perfect sea conditions almost everyday during the last weeks. Some even talk about the best summer in Iceland since 1944 …

The minke whales have been our main stars on our last tours, along with white-beaked dolphins. Occasionally we have also spotted two northern bottlenose whales. It seems that the larger whales, the humpbacks, have moved out of the bay – but hopefully they will soon return again.

Guide Daniel had the “perfect” minke whale tour onboard Faldur the other day. This is how he describes his encounters with the minke:

“Captain Hlynur and I headed out to Skjalfandi Bay on one of our afternoon tours. On the previous tours we spotted one minke very far away, so we were not so optimistic about the tour. But of course we kept our expectations low and hoped for the best as always. This is nature and indeed unpredictable!

After about 1 ½ hour of sailing we finally spotted a minke whale – in fact there were 3 minkes in that area! I definitely had one of my best minke tours. One minke was very curious and relaxed. It was swimming under the boat and spy-hopping for a long time. A fantastic experience for both crew and passengers! The minkes are indeed well known for their curiosity, but somehow when the humpbacks are around in the bay we sometimes tend to “forget” our nice minkes that are also in the bay … ”

DA