WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2016

Tour at 17:00

Report from Eldey: On crystal calm seas we travelled into Faxafloi bay with minimal wind which made for a very pleasant journey. Our first sighting began with a pod of 8-10 white-beaked dolphins who we spent over 20 minutes with and watched them play all around the boat. There was even a juvenile present! We travelled further out into the bay where we spotted more white-beaked dolphins even catching these agile animals leap out of the water. We then happened on a blow from a humpback whale 800 m away. We followed the blow on the horizon until it surfaced again. We were able to stay with this animal for over 45 minutes allowing us to get up to 30 m away - an amazingly close encounter with this incredibly majestic animal. It surfaced regularly and flashed it´s very white pectoral fins just under the surface. The animal appeared to be very relaxed and allowed great photo opportunities for our passengers! We left this gentle giant and went in search of another of the bay´s regular visitors - the minke whale. We sailed for only 5 minutes when we were greeted with this animal - allowing us to watch it surface and dive on 3 occasions before going on a deeper dive. When heading back into the harbour we spotted at least 2 more of these individuals - even spying some harbour porpoises in-between times. A great tour! 

- Darcy Philpott

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: Generous sea state remained on this trip as well, there was less sun so we were a little bit cold, but calm was reigning over the bay, which made our adventure very pleasant. No efforts were required for sightings cetaceans. At first we spotted 4 minke whales surfacing around us, 2 of them very close to our boat. There were more surfacing in the distance, they were everywhere ! Then following the same pattern than our morning tour, we then sighted harbour porpoises. They were really shy this time though, it was not easy to have close looks. After that, we met a small pod of 6-8 white-beaked dolphins, lazily traveling in front of us. They allowed us to come closer before keeping moving straight forward. It was already a nice encounter, but then we found a bigger pod of dolphins (10-15) a little bit further away, and they became really curious of us ! At first they were circling the boat, then part of the pod decided to come to check us out. And one juvenile was among them ! This one proudly leapt in front of us several times, and was moving quickly, but never without the proximity of some adults. They came less than 2 m close to the bow of the boat, so we could follow them underwater from the boat, it was magnificent ! When time was due we had to head back toward Reykjavik, but not without spotting on the way back more porpoises, minkes and dolphins. Everything was zen, the animals were so relaxed, what a treat !

- Guillaume Calcagni

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: Sea conditions today were very stable. Pretty cloudy but good visibility. I also liked the landscape around the bay. Hvalfjordur was in the total mist. Also the colour of the water was pretty impressive. Changing from light blue to grey every now and then. The boat did not rock at all throughout the tour. That also helped passengers to stay focused and they could help me spot the cetaceans. After 40 minutes of sailing we saw the first minky whale. It was not the only one around and little by little more indivuals started to pop up around the boat within a distance between 100 and 600 meters. I counted at least 10 of them. What an amazing and stinky animal. Some of the passengers could smell it before they could actually see it. After sometime watching the minky whales swimming around (some of them I believe they were just traveling, maybe feeding in the same area too) we headed out to look for more species. On the way out we spotted a few elusive harbour porpoises not far from the bow I counted at least 3 in a pod. 5 minutes later there it was!the beautiful and adorable white-beaked dolphin. I saw two main pods of them with 2 and 4 individuals each. There was a calf too!so cute!People loved it. Also, they were friendly and swam around the boat. We stayed around them for about 30 minutes and after that we tried to find other species without success. However, we spotted more minky whales and a couple more pods of white-beaked dolphins that made our way back to harbour an amazing ending. I´d definitely call this tour the minky party tour!they were all around most of the time! People loved it and left with a smile upon their face.

- Jorge Pascual

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: In the continuity of yesterday, the sea was flat this morning, and still had this beautiful pale green color. In such conditions, it was not long until we spotted our first minke whale. We could have close looks so we decided to try our luck further away. We met a relaxed pod of 6-10 harbor porpoises and, although we decided to not stop we could see them clearly popping out of the water for a while ! On our way we could sight many more minke whales in the surroundings, at least 6 of them. Ultimately we could meet our third and last species of this tour, the white-beaked dolphins, and did they put a show ! They were feeding all around the boat, surfacing quickly, leaping out of the water, and some sea birds were trying to catch the leftovers. It was spectacular, there was a dozen of them surroundings us. After enjoying them to our content, we decided to look for other species, but we only met more porpoises, minkes and dolphins. Not hurt feelings, this morning the bay provided plentifully in a perfect weather !

- Guillaume Calcagni

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: Lots of wildlife to see on this beautiful morning tour! Just after about 45 min sailing we encountered our first minke whale that showed itself very well and surfaced just about 20-30 m away from us sometimes. We could also see at least 3 more minke whales further in the distance. After moving on to look for something else, we soon found more minke whales with two of them circling the boat and coming incredibly close to us! Simply amazing considering that they are still being hunted here in Iceland! While watching the minkes, we saw a group of dolphins a few hundred meters away but they also came closer until we had ca. 12 white-beaked dolphins all around us and even a couple of calves jumping right in front of us! In the end we also encountered a humpback whale as the perfect ending of the tour and got a few good looks at it as well before we were running out of time. On our way back we saw 3 more minke whales, not to forget the many harbour porpoises (we probably saw a total of around 30 individuals) that were abundant in the bay today!

- Hanna Michel

Bird species seen on today's tours include: northern fulmar, lesser black-backed gull, kittiwake, atlantic puffin, common guillemot, eider duck, arctic skua and arctic tern. 

Status: RUNNING

We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. The forecast predicts little wind from the East and it is warm even if the sun is hiding behind some clouds.