Author: laki

28/1/14 On the first tour we found some White-beaked Dolphins towards the mouth of Grundarfjörður but then the captain received a phone call telling him that there were Orcas over in Kolgrafarfjörður. As the risk was that they‘d soon pass under the bridge, we decided to say goodbye to the dolphins right then and head over there as soon as possible. But on the way we received another call from our scout, telling us that the Orcas had just passed under the bridge. We nonetheless decided to continue our journey in the hope of running into some others. While scanning the fjord upon arrival, we realised it had been a wise decision to continue as there were indeed some 5-6 Orcas on our side of the bridge. However, they were dispersed over a wide area, spending much time under the surface, and rather hard to follow. It is probable that they were busy looking for food. But with the mission therefore successful, we could return to Grundarfjörður happy. Unfortunately the second tour was not the same. No Orcas anywhere but a White-tailed Sea Eagle seen close to the boat and also a small pod of dolphins seen in the same place as in the morning. They came over to check us out though and showed a bit of interest in the boat.

27/1/14 The Orcas were not seen yesterday but were back at work today like we hoped they would. We encountered a pod of ~15 exiting Grundarfjörður as we were returning from watching dolphins off Kolgrafarfjörður on the first tour. On the second tour we saw what seemed to be three adults with a very young calf in front of Mount Eyrarfjall. We spent some quality time with them but then went off in search of others in a bit calmer water. There were a few Orcas in the mouth of Kolgrafarfjörður but they were elusive and spent a lot of time underwater, eventually going into water too shallow for us to enter. On the way back we were met by some dolphins that rushed towards us to bowride but, somewhat unusually, they had had enough after about 5 minutes. Often they engage in this game for more than 20 minutes but perhaps they had an agenda and just gave themselves time for a short play break; after all, who isn‘t busy on Mondays!

26/1/14 Today we saw some nice White-beaked Dolphins around the mouth of Grundarfjörður where it meets Breiðafjörður. We stayed with them for a little while and then went off in search of Orcas but none were seen. We also sent someone ahead of us to scout Kolgrafarfjörður to see if there were any Orcas there but there weren’t. Perhaps they want to be off on Sundays? Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

25/1/14 We had a very good trip today: First we encountered a pod of around 15 white-beaked dolphins, and then spotted about 30 killer whales including at least two babies! While the orcas were spread out at the beginning, we could later observe them travelling in tighter groups with quite some socializing going on. To sum it up: Happy whales and happy passengers – that’s how we like it!
Marie-Thérese Guide

23/1/14  We came upon a pod of 5-7 Orcas in somewhat choppy water just off Grundarfjörður and followed them for a while as they travelled in the direction of Kolgrafafjörður but then decided to pass them and be there first to see if there might be any others there already. We also wanted to get into calmer water. At the mouth of the fjord, we stared in to see if there might be any Orcas there but it wasn’t until we were very close to the bridge that we realized there were 2-3 of them present. However, those seemed busy feeding and wanting to be left in peace. But then we noticed that  two small groups had entered the fjord, in fact around the time when the Orcas are  normally seen leaving the fjord than entering it. Perhaps they wanted some afternoon snack? At any rate, a single White-tailed Eagle and a young Orca breaching once and spyhopping once (we didn’t get photos of it though as it happened so unexpectedly) made the time we spent in Kolgrafarfjörður a very special one.

21/1/2014 – We did not see Orcas today but we learnt that a pod of 6-8 of them was on the other side of the bridge in Kolgrafarfjörður as our captain drove there quickly to check just before the tour. So we went out towards the fjord in the hope of running into them on their way out in the afternoon, or perhaps some other Orcas. However, the White-sided Dolphins here and there told us that there probably wouldn‘t be any Orcas around as they tend to avoid them. We also learnt as we were about half-way through that the pod from the morning was still behind the bridge, but we cannot pass under it on the boat. So we decided not to follow our original plan and return gently home. However, we think no one was displeased with the tour as the first Dolphin pod we saw by Mount Kirkjufell was brilliant! They seemed to be feeding when we arrived but upon noticing the approaching boat, they all seemed to abandon what they were doing for bowriding! What made the encounter seem even closer was that today we went on Láki, not Brimrún, which has a lower deck so you are closer to the sea and whatever may be splashing there!

 Some Common Seals popped their heads up and looked at us as we sailed out through Grundarfjörður on our tour today. About 30 minutes   from Grundarfjörður we found a pod of White-beaked Dolphins. They were spread out over a large area and seemed busy feeding so we left them after a while and continued in our search for Orcas. We didn’t find any but we found another pod of Dolphins in an area known to locals as ‘Bótin’. Captain Skarphéðinn thought it might be the same ones that had simply moved further out, which might well be since there were no Dolphins where we had seen the earlier pod once we sailed back home. If it was the same pod, it was clearly done with feeding and was up for play as they rushed towards us and bowrode alongside and in front of the boat for at least half an hour to the great delight of our passengers.

 Two great tours today; one with a Discover the World group and a second open one. Captain Gísli was determined to find Orcas today as we hadn’t found them yesterday and so he did! On the morning tour we first found  five Orcas about 40 minutes out from Grundarfjörður. They were  eastbound and not easy to follow so we soon left them  and continued towards Kolgrafarfjörður but before we got there, we encountered dozens of White-beaked Dolphins. While they didn’t bowride this time (while on the afternoon tour they did) they were all over leaping and jumping as if their plane was going down! By that point we found that the tour had been pleasant enough and that returning slowly to Grundarfjörður would be all right. But the Orcas had other ideas and before we got back, we had two more encounters with them, one with the same pod as earlier, clearly heading for their lunch inside Kolgrafarfjörður, and another two pods, one of about seven whales and the other of about six whales. An astonishing tour indeed! On the afternoon tour the Dolphins totally stole the show with bowriding while the Orcas were a bit more reserved. Another piece of interest was to see our first White-tailed Sea Eagles in probably two days and no fewer than at least five of them inside Kolgrafarfjörður at that!

We sailed out under an overcast and rather rainy sky to check out Kolgrafafjörður. While no Orcas were seen on the this tour, our spotter, Marinó sighted a wonderful pod of White-sided Dolphins just off Eyrarfjall. Perhaps the same ones as we saw two days ago; at least the location was the same. And then, these ones really took the opportunity to have a bit of fun with us for they bowrode alongside us for a good while. The other key attraction were the thousands of Northern Gannets that were all over the place, often times lunging down for their Herring  meal of the day.

This morning we went out with a group from Discover the World. The idea was that we should go and find Orcas rather than them finding us. However, we didn’t even get out of Grundarfjörður as a pod of 8-10 of them came towards us on our way out of the fjord! It was as if they were saying “Well, we’ve been waiting for you all morning so we decided to come and get you!” We sailed calmly around them as they travelled back and forth between Grundarfjörður and Melrakkaey for the rest of the tour, seemingly not feeding but rather just making half-hearted checks for whether there’d be any Herring there, splitting up and reuniting all the time. It was such a great tour that 2/3 of the DTW group wanted to come again in the afternoon. So it was more or less the same passengers again that we took out at 2 PM for just as great a tour now the male ‘Floppy’ with the collapsed dorsal fin had joined in.
Baldur