12/3/2014 – We will remember this day as one that ended as brilliantly as it had started anxiously. Having not been able to go out on Monday and not seen any Orcas yesterday, we wanted to make this a beyond great day and so before we went out, Captain Gísli had asked nearby fishing boats to alert him if they would see whales. Our friend Cathy from Discover the World was also nice enough to go and scout the sea from land. But by the time we went out on the 10:00 tour, we had had no news. We started by heading to the east and look quickly for dolphins inside Kolgrafarfjörður but there were none and so we turned back to the west and searched there for a while. Then luck struck after about an hour and a half. The captain on the local fishing vessel M/S Haukaberg called Gísli to inform him that he had seen Orcas! We went on full speed towards that spot on Brimrún and saw them, two males and a female. What a great sighting! Even better, one of them turned out to be ‘Humpy’, a male with a deformed forehead that hasn’t been seen here since at least mid-January. As we have a group of people from Discover the World that hadn’t managed to see any whales yesterday, we knew we had to let them know and so Gísli called land to notify them. The group was quickly gathered and went out on our other boat Láki while we spent some good time with the trio in order not to lose them before Láki would arrive. But in the end we didn’t have to wait for Láki as they were struck by an even stronger lightning of luck just inside Grundarfjörður, that struck in the shape of a large pod of Orcas! So we could leave ours and go to theirs. After some weeks of seeing perhaps 15 Orcas max, and having to look for them sometimes far from land, it was a sheer thrill to have as many as ~30 of them almost right on our doorstep! They’re invited to return every single day hereafter and we do hope they will accept the invitation.
Baldur Guide
