Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: The wind from the afternoon had decreased a little bit and the swells hit us from the northwest. But that didn´t stop us from sailing out on the midnight tour. A partly cloudy sky showed us the midnight sun from time to time. We decided to sail far out to the proven good area of Márfló, where another whale watching boat was seeing minke whales and humpback whales. Before we arrived to the spot we could already see the might blow from the humpback in the distance! When we got closer we entered a real feeding frenzy, large amounts of seabirds were feeding in the area, hundreds of gannets, fulmars, lesser black-backed gulls and manx shearwaters covered the area. In all that a rather small humpback whale showed itself nicely to us during two surfacing sequences, racing its fluke when going for a deeper dive. We had no reason of leaving the area as we also spotted 2-3 minke whales feeding around us. Right before we started heading back a humpback whale started breaching behind us! The whale breached 4 times and this was no doubt the highlight of today! It proved to be 2 humpback whales together, most likely the two individuals we had seen on the previous tours today. I great end to this awesome tour was when both humpbacks went for a dive really close to our boat and they most likely swam underneath us.
- Marcus Bergström
Tour at 17:00
Report from Hafsúlan: The wind had picked up quite a bit when we headed out. The humpbacks were heading out of the bay at quite some speed when we last saw them so it was decided to seek shelter from land in our search for minke whales and white beaked dolphins. The warm winds kept us company on our way out, at one point one of our researchers thought she spotted a harbour porpoise but we didn't see it again. It seems that unfortunately our luck had changed since earlier today and this turned out to be one of our rare non sighting tours. None got seasick though and the passengers had a lot of fun dancing with the warm winds that were running around. Fun tour but no whales.
- Svala Jónsdóttir
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: This afternoon the wind was picking up but conditions were still good and the humpback whales from this morning were still at large in the bay. They were much further out this morning and it was 40 minutes of sailing before two flukes (tails) were spotted of our port bow in the distance. We headed towards them and very soon they were swimming around us, surfacing three or four times before going for a long dive. The wait was not tedious however and in between watching the magnificent pair of humpbacks surface we were surrounded by a massive flock of gannets diving only 50 metres away from the boat. Towards the end of the tour the humpbacks surface three times extremely close to the front of our boat almost in slow motion allowing everyone a fantastic look at these individuals. As we turned away we then spotted a pod of 5-7 white-beaked dolphins who were swimming calmly alongside us. We got an excellent look at them and then turned back towards Reykjavik after a fantastic tour. I thought this was it but on the way back we spotted some large splashes in the distance and as we got closer a minke whale took to the skies and we saw it twist in the air, showing its white belly before crashing back into the ocean. An awesome end to the tour!
-Ívar Elí Sveinsson
Tour at 13:00
Report from Hafsúlan: When this tour started, we were still excited about the encounter with the humpback whales on the morning tour and we hoped to find them again. Indeed, as we were sailing out in to Faxaflói, we soon spotted large blows again that could only be the blows of humpback whales. Again, we tried to get closer and we needed to be patient for quite some time, before the two humpback whales came up to the surface again. After we could watch a few surfacings and fluke ups, one of them started slapping its tail on the water surface before it went down for a deep dive. When they were surfacing a few minutes later, one of them rolled over on its side, raised both its pectoral fins out of the water and slapped them down on the water surface. And all this happened within 100 m from our boat! The humpback whales are famous for this aerial behaviour and they really treated us today. However, to not disturb the animals for too long, we moved on hoping to also find other cetacean species on this tour. It didn't take long until we spotted a minke whale, but soon we noticed that there were four minke whales around us, and one of them surfaced only 20 m from our boat. Then, in the end, we also found a pod of five white-beaked dolphins again and could see them swimming underneath our boat and surfacing close to us, before we had to start our way back to the harbour of Reykjavík.
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: Conditions this morning were quite nice as we set sail from Reykjavik harbor and headed out onto Faxa bay. We soon got radio reports from our sister vessel Hafsúlan that two large Humpback whales had been spotted close to shore. Setting a direct course for the humpbacks we reached the area in 15 minutes and from then on it was a fantastic display. These individuals swam along very close together and surfaced as a pair or one just after the other. We were also treated to a variety of behaviors, tail slapping, pectoral fin slapping and saw the tail or fluke of the humpback many times. It was all in all an awesome display very close to the shoreline in absolutely gorgeous weather, we couldn't have asked for a better tour. After this encounter we headed further out and spotted a blow from an unidentified cetacean far away and had a brief encounter with some white-beaked dolphins who showed themselves towards the end of the tour. A good ending and the boat was all smiles as we headed back to harbor.
-Ívar Elí Sveinsson
Tour at 09:00
Report from Hafsúlan: This day started great with a flat sea and sunshine for us. We were looking forward to have a fun day out at sea, when suddenly passengers spotted a few animals only about 20 min outside the harbour. Indeed, there were large blows in some distance and then we saw two whales raising their flukes out of the water - a clear sign for humpback whales. This pair was traveling together very close to shore and they stayed underwater for quite a few minutes, but our patience was rewarded and we, finally, got a closer look at these whales surfacing and raising their flukes in front of out boat. Then, suddenly and unexpectedly, we could enjoy watching one of them breaching! Spectacular! This only happens on a few tours each year, so we really appreciated to be able witness this behaviour. We spent a while with the humpback whales and then decided to move on to look for other cetacean species. There was not much time left on the tour, but we managed to find a small pod of about 7 white-beaked dolphins. It was the perfect ending for this amazing tour to see dolphins traveling next to us in this calm sea in the sun's glare.
- Hanna Michel
Birds spotted on todays tours: Gannets,, Fulmars, Greater and Lesser Black-backed gulls, Kittiwakes, Great Skua, Arctic Skua Puffin, Arctic Tern, European Storm Petrel, Razorbill, Common Guillemots, Brunich's Guillemot, Manx Shearwater.
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