Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: The swell continued into the afternoon and we had quite a rollercoaster ride heading out into Faxa bay. We only had light rain, but unfortunately that was enough to decrease the visibility so that we could not see much of the beautiful landscape surrounding us. Quite a few passengers had made use of the free seasickness tablets we offer, but we still had a few green faces on this tour also. However, we hadn´t even sailed for 40 minutes when we spotted a minke whale! It surfaced very close to our boat and we got some great looks at it. After the first surfacing it became a bit more elusive, but we still managed to spot it a few more times - in spite of the swell rolling in from the open ocean in the West. And just as we were about to turn around we heard that there was a humpback whale in the area. And of course we had to see that for ourselves before heading back to Reykjavík! It didn´t take long until we saw the first blow and soon enough we saw a dark back heading towards us. Taking a closer look, we quickly discovered that we were actually looking at two different humpback whales. We got some nice views of this pair of baleen whales as they moved closer and closer to our boat before diving. What a nice surprise before turning around for a much smoother sail back to the city... And as we were leaving the area the humpback whales even re-emerged just in time for us to get a last look and wave goodbye.
- Linda Rudin
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: It was a little miserable today with the swell, rain and poor visibility however, passengers stayed warm in the complimentary overalls and made use of the warm drinks for sale at out on board cafeteria. It was quite rough out in the bay and some poor people had green faces after a while. It is always good to take a seasickness tablet at least 30 minutes before the tour and stay outside in the fresh air. We offer these for free to if they are needed. After about 40 minutes of sailing we came across a fantastic pod of white-beaked dolphins (video can be seen on our Facebook page), at least 10 most likely around 15 individuals. They were amazing, surfacing together, surfing the swells, and leaping all together out of the water. It was magical and gave our passengers plenty of opportunities to take pictures and videos, whilst holding on to the rails of course. It was difficult to leave the dolphins, we couldn´t keep our eye off them as they were so much fun but we tried and succeeded and went looking for other species. No other cetaceans were encountered on this tour, the dolphins were surely the stars of today´s tour. On the way home (1 hour´s journey) the ride was smooth and more comfortable as we surfed with the swells and the wind. A true Icelandic adventure on the North Atlantic.
- Megan Whittaker
Bird species on todays tours: northern fulmar, lesser black-baked gulls, kittiwakes, eider ducks, northern gannets, arctic skua, common guillemot & atlantic puffins.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today on this partly cloudy day. The Western Winds have started to blow so some swells are to be expected.
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