Tour at 20.30
We headed out to Faxaflói in a really calm and warm weather. Only after few minuets we saw the first minke whale. It surfaced many many times in front of us and we could see how it was following the food! For a moment we lost it, but a little later, suddenly we saw it JUMPING OUT OF THE WATER!!!!! WOW what an amazing thing to see! The minke whale stayed with us for a long time but we decided to search for something else when it was deep diving for a long time. No luck after this one, but this minke whale was just amazing! On the way back we stopped at Akurey and saw many puffins flying around the island! Very unique tour!
Birds seen on tour: Puffins, fulmars, and lesser black backed gulls
Tour at 17:00
Report from Hafúlan: We had just left the harbour when we spotted the Baskin Shark again with its mouth wide open. Eventually it went for a long deep dive and then we headed out. It was very difficult this time around. Not many birds to help us search and the 3 Minke Whales we spotted during the trip were very difficult deep diving for a very long time and surfacing again rather far away. On our way back to the Harbour we then stopped by Akurey to see if the Puffins were at home and few of them were, those we saw were flying around the area and sitting around the island.
Tour at 14:00
The weather was the same when we headed out again and there where only few puffins on the puffin island Akurey but some sitting on the surface around it. 10 minutes from the island we found a Basking shark and we stayed with it for some time. Then we got some news from out sister ship that they found a very good area with lots of minke whales. So we sailed as fast as we could. When we came to the area we were surrounded by minke whales. It was fantastic watching them rolling in the surface, busy feeding. We also spotted one harbour porpoise. So all together awesome tour.
Tour at 13:00
AMAZING TOUR!!! Out in the bay we found ourselves surrounded by Minke whales and had to jump continuously from one side of the boat to the other, trying to keep up with all these black backs surfacing all around us. There were also the shy and hard to spot Harbour Porpoises and even three playful white-beaked dolphins, just some five metres away from the boat. We thought the tour was perfect already at that point but just before reaching the harbour, we received a transmission about a BASKIN SHARK!! These are the second largest fish in the world and surely not an everyday sight in the Faxaflói bay. It was floating just below the surface, it's mouth wide open and filter-feeding. So beautiful, at some point you could see the whole face and the body. Absolutely mind-blowing, one of the best tours this summer!!
Tour at 10:00
The weather was beautiful when we headed out this morning. The puffin island Akurey was our first stop, checking out the puffins. Out in the bay we found three species, very nice minke whales, a nice group of white-beaked dolphins and gorgeous pod of harbour porpoises. They came very close to the boat, some only 5 meters and all our passengers enjoyed them a lot. So, fantastic tour.
Tour at 09:00
This tour was definitely a Minke whale tour! After a very pleasant visit to the Puffin island Akurey, we headed out into the bay and encountered our first Minke unusually close to shore after five minutes of sailing. It was a bit shy and so we did not want to push it too much. Thanks to the very calm surface (almost no wind at all!), it was possible to see a lot of Minke backs kilometres away already and once we reached that area, it all went very quickly! 10-12 animals circled around us and came pretty near the vessel. All of a sudden, a huge Minke (maybe 9 metres) popped up next to the boat at our starboard side, not even 2m away. On the way home, we met a pod of Harbour Porpoises. A great tour!