Husavik - Whale Watching....Or is that Watching for Whales?

 We arrived in Husavik to another gorgeous day. This weather is amazing, considering that the last snowstorm they had here according to our guide was only about 3 weeks ago! We had been hoping for decent weather for our whale watching expedition, and hoped that the whales would also appreciate the sun.

We only had a short walk from the tender pier to the whale watching boats. These are all open wooden fishing boats that carry about 40 passengers. We weren't sure if we had on enough layers against the potential wind, but we didn't have to worry - as soon as we boarded, we were each given a one-piece overall to pull on over our clothes. Waterproof if needed and quite warm; we only needed to pull out our knitted hats and we were fine.

                                       

On the way out into the larger bay where the whales were expected to be, we passed our ship. Time for the tourist shot:

                                       

We also sailed past Lundey Island, also known as Puffin Island due to the 100,000 puffins that nest there each year. They spend 4 months in the nests and the balance of the year out at sea. Like penguins, they will return to the same nesting area every year and will look for their previous mate - they don't stay together outside of mating season. If they can't find their previous mate, they will mate with another, but if the old one shows up a little late, they'll go back to that one.

Puffins make 2 metre deep burrows into the rock of the island and lay their eggs deep inside. This keeps out the gulls and other predator birds. They will often sit just outside their burrow, so all you can see are these white dots all over the island, each one being a puffin.

Puffin Island. Lots of birds in the water around
here as well. They are awkward fliers because they
are heavy for birds, but they can dive to 60 metres!

All those little white dots are puffins
beside their nest burrows

       We headed out past the island and started to look out for signs of whales. We watched, and we watched, and we watched..........

                                        

And eventually we found a small pod of White Beaked Dolphins. We hung around with them for a while, looking for other marine life at the same time, but to no avail.

One of the other whale watching boats had seen a humpback in the bay, so we headed toward that. It turned out to be a single juvenile male feeding. He would come up for air and then disappear for 7 or 8 minutes, come back up and give us a glimpse of his back and tail, and then dive for another 7 or 8 minutes. It took a long time to get this bit of video....with a little of the dolphins at the end. Hope the upload works.

                                         

             There wasn't too much to see in the town, so we headed back to the ship once we left the boat. Not quite the whale watching we had hoped for, since Husavik is apparently the whale watching capital of Iceland. We'll have to keep our eyes out for more whales as we sail in the very long evenings.                                        

The local church just by the marina