THURSDAY, 25 June 2015

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: The sun was setting slowly in sky as we made our way out on to the beautiful bay. The sea was flat and we had birds all around us. The first species that we spotted was a pod of white beaked dolphins with around 4-5 individuals. They were resting and just gently swam ahead of the boat. We didn't not stay too long in case we disturbed them, instead we moved out further in to the bay. But it wasn't long before we spotted some minke whales, we had 3 individuals at first. They came closer and closer to the boat and we had some amazing views of them feeding. We moved on passing another minke before gently steaming back listening to the wonderful music of Bjorni. Beautiful evening to be on the water. 

-Tommy Torrades

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: During the day the sky cleared up and the sun truly came out, we were bathed in sunshine for the whole of this afternoon trip. It took us a little longer to find our first animals than on previous tours and when we did we find a minke whale it wasn't proving to be a good sight. It was diving for very long times and not spending time at the surface. We moved on to find something better, this was definitely the best decision. We found an area with 3-4 minke whales and they were absolutely the perfect whales! We identified two of them as our good friends Midi and Humpie who we see very often and give us good tours. This was another one of those days, Midi was especially great as it was surfacing within 10 meters of the boat constantly and never leaving our side. Humpie was also very interactive and was coming close very often. In addition to these there were two more minke whales that were also coming within 100m of the boat very often. We also saw a small pod of 5 white-beaked dolphins. This was a really special tour that it was a true pleasure to be a part of.

- Jack Ball

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The sea conditions were still very good this afternoon, and after an amazing tour in the morning we were confident to found several cetaceans again on this tour. It did not take long until we found the first minke whale in this tour. It stayed underwater for several minutes between the surface sequences, but then it came to the water surface to breathe up to 8 times in a row which was very nice to see. Then we heard about a pod of white beaked dolphins that had been spotted a little further out, and decided to look for them. Soon we saw splashes from jumping dolphins in some distance ahead of us, and then got a good look at 6 white beaked dolphins traveling next to us and swimming underneath our boat. After a while we started to find another minke whale and found three more of them during the rest of the tour, sometimes coming as close to us as 40 m. 

- Hanna Michel

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: On this very beautiful afternoon we left the harbour in search of cetaceans. Having had an amazing morning, we were optimistic from the beginning. Indeed we were lucky again, not just with the surprisingly calm weather, also with the amount of marine mammals sighted. Starting off with 2 pods of white- beaked dolphins, with several juvenile animals and at least one calf, that seemed to be very interested in our boat. They were coming rather close to the boat and diving underneath it. After we spent some time with these friendly animals we continued looking for bigger cetaceans. It did not take us a long time until we reached an area with several minke whales, feeding very close to us. We had one whale which was rolling several times only 50 meters away from the boat. On our way back to Reykjavik we even encountered several harbour porpoises. Estimating 4-6 minke whales, 15-20 white- beaked dolphins and around 3 harbour porpoises.

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: We sailed out in to Faxaflói in perfect conditions this morning, as the sea looked like a mirror. We very soon came across a minke whale, but it surfaced only once before it vanished, so we moved on and had a pod of 3 harbour porpoises crossing our path. As we kept searching for larger cetacean species, we soon found a fun pod of 5 white beaked dolphins that were traveling next to us and swam underneath our boat a few times. After a while we started looking for another minke whale and soon found ourselves in a good area with 4 minke whales feeding all around us. It was hard to decide where to look with so much life around us, since two more pods of white beaked dolphins showed up and started jumping a little further away from us than the minke whales. It was an amazing tour with lots of animals and flat sea. Perfect!  

 Hanna Michel

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The conditions for sighting were almost perfect this morning, we had a mirror like sea with great visibility and an overcast sky giving us an easy way to spot these animals. In contrast to previous days it did not take very long to find our first animals, almost at the same time we came across a minke whale and small pod of white-beaked dolphins which was just 2 individuals. The first whale was not such a good sight but the dolphins were easy to follow and were very calm when traveling near to us. But this was only the beginning! Across the rest of the tour we got a good look at 4 more minke whales and found 6 more pods of white-beaked dolphins totalling around 30-35 individuals! There was wildlife in every direction and for as far as we could see, no matter where we looked we could see a dolphin or whale surfacing. It was a true feast for the eyes and one that every camera on board could take advantage of.

- Jack Ball

Bird species seen on todays tours include: northern gannets, northern fulmars, common guillemots, puffins, kittiwakes, iceland gulls, manx shearwaters, eider- ducks, arctic terns, and lesser black backed gulls.