Tour at 20:30
Report from Hafsulan: As expected from such a day, we had a wonderful weather for the midnight tour ! With no wind to bite us, no swells to shake us and no cold temperatures to freeze us we set sail in relaxed conditions and high spirits. It was not long before we found our first minke whale. We could look at it few times, but seeing it was rather shy we decided to leave it alone and to try our luck further offshore. Quickly again, we met a pod of feeding white-beaked dolphins. The pod split in two groups and we could see them surface all around the boat. These dolphins were not shy at all and were surfacing slowly close to us. After a while, we moved away to find a perfect area. The midnight sun was showing up, tainting the landscape with yellow and orange, but also allowing some part of the mirror sea to display pale blue colors. As if the place was not dreamy enough, at least 6-7 minke whales were surfacing all around us, in different distances. We only had to turn off the engine and let the wildlife work its magic. In every direction we could hear the powerful blow of those cetaceans. Two white-beaked dolphins even passed by for a moment ! This place was full of food and we also witnessed a lot of birds feeding, including arctic skuas harassing fulmars or kittiwakes to steal their preys. We could stay there a very long time, fascinated by those whales surrounding us. Finally we had to come back to the harbour, enjoying our musician show. This was a very fine evening for nature and whale, or sailing enthusiasts.
- Guillaume Calcagni
Tour at 17:00
Report from Hafsulán: We sailed out on an incredible calm sea, low sun breaking through the clouds, and wonderful wildlife. After 40 minutes of sailing we saw our first minke whale, a resting individual that surfaced so slowly that everyone got lots of nice photographs. We left this animal in peace and traveled more to the north and found ourselves surrounded by minke whales but in various distances. I think the most we had around us at once within 500m was about 4 animals with 2 individuals coming within 30-40 meters. Just as we were leaving to head home we got word from another whale watching boat about a pod of white-beaked dolphins. A scattered pod of about 10 animals and we even saw kotroskin (a dolphin seen a lot this summer with 2 nicks on the trailing edge). The ride home was peaceful and we enjoyed the rainbow and the stunning cloud formations. A wonderful evening to be on the water.
- Megan Whittaker
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: The conditions from the morning stayed the same so we could be confident of more success this afternoon. Just like on the last tour our first sighting was of a pod of white-beaked dolphins, this one was around 6-7 individuals large and was travelling slowly through the water. We followed them as they slowly travelled close the the vessel for around 15 minutes. They were very calm and unlike on most days, easy to take pictures of! We later moved on and found a pair of minke whales feeding, but they seemed to be feeding deep under water and spent very little time at the surface. This wasn't great for watching so we left and found a second pair of minke whales! In this pair there was, just like in the morning, a great minke whale named Háski who was once again giving us a really nice tour. After a lot of nice sightings of Háski and the second whale we began to head back and found another pod of dolphins with an individual which we also know, a dolphin named Sophie. On our way back to Reykjavík we saw 3-4 more whales in the distance too, the bay was full of life today!
- Jack Ball
Tour at 13:00
Report from Hafsúlan: After a very busy morning tour, we were full of hopes to also have a great afternoon tour. As we sailed out in to Faxaflói, the sea conditions and the weather were still amazing, so we very soon found another pod of 11-13 white-beaked dolphins again, sticking closely together and obviously resting. They seemed very calm and and didn't move a lot, so it was easy for all our passengers to take nice pictures. We spent some time with these dolphins, before we started to move on towards a different area. But it didn't take long, until we found a minke whale and soon noticed that there were 3-4 minke whales around us again. One of these minke whales was Tap again, a minke seen regularly since 2007. And again, Tap was the minke coming closest to us and staying around us for some time. Since we do not want to disturb the animals for too long, we decided to leave these friendly minke whales and look for something else. And soon, we found another pod of 15-20 white-beaked dolphins that seemed to be traveling towards a different area. They were racing through and leaping out of water and were amazing to watch as we were traveling next them. A great ending to this tour full of dolphins and minkes!
- Hanna Michel
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: The weather and sea was perfect for whale watching today, completely flat and pale making our chances of seeing animals very high. After 45 minutes we sighted something that we would end up watching for almost the entire tour, a huge pod of 20-30 white-beaked dolphins travelling together. We never meant to spend so much time with this pod but everywhere we went they seemed to follow us! This was an excellent pod, as well as being very big it was full of playful dolphins jumping very close to us and interacting with the vessel. Along with all the dolphins we spotted 4 minke whales very well and there were many more in the distance. The whales were great too, happy to feed close to our vessel and spend a lot of time at the surface. The best whale was a friend of ours, a whale we named Haski who always gives us nice tours. The highlight of the tour came when we had left the dolphins to watch a minke, then out of nowhere the dolphins approached from behind us and started bow riding! They seemed to want all of the attention on them! An almost perfect tour this morning...
- Jack Ball
Tour at 09:00
Report from Hafsúlan: We have been really spoiled in the last days with a flat sea and perfect weather, and it was the same this morning as we started our tour from Reykjavík. In didn't take long until we could see a few cetaceans in the distance, and soon we got closer to a pod of 8 white-beaked dolphins traveling close next to us, and giving us very good chances to get great pictures which can be a little tricky sometimes. While watching the dolphins, we could also see several minke whales surfacing in some distance. So, after a while we decided to leave the dolphins alone and get a closer look at the minke whales. We recognized one individual that stayed around our boat and surfaced a lot of times within 100 m from us - this was "Tap", a minke whale seen regularly in Faxaflói since 2007. While Tap didn't mind our presence at all and kept swimming all around us, we could see 2-3 other minke whales a little further away from us. We had an amazing time with this very friendly minke, and after some time started to move on to look for something else. Before we had to head back to the Old Reykjavík harbour, we came across another 10-12 pod of white-beaked dolphins. It was a nice ending of the tour to get another close look at this beautiful dolphin species.
- Hanna Michel
Birds seen on todays tour include: Northern fulmars, northern gannets, Atlantic puffins, eider ducks, common guillemots, razorbills, Arctic skuas, kittiwakes, black-backed gulls, Arctic terns, cormorants and manx shearwaters.
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