Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: There was not a cloud in the sky to spoil the magnificent sunset we sailed out into. All the passengers were basking in the glorious sunlight, drinks in hand, and eyes at the ready to the spot the wildlife. The bird life was particularly entertaining this evening, with many puffins diving, fulmars gliding and skuas fighting to observe. After an hour or so some eagle-eyed passengers spotted a few tall, dark dorsal fins 250 m away, which turned out to be a pod of 3-5 white beaked dolphin! Although we were often turning circles in our big boat in order to follow them it was not long before they evaded our sights. We continued out with our hopes high and enjoying the beautiful surroundings, particularly Snaefellsjokull which looked majestic on the horizon. It became clear that although beautiful the sunset was making spotting conditions quite tricky, so we started up some live music to the delight and applause of the passengers. As we headed back we also passed several speeding harbour porpoises, alas they did not stay long enough for all to see. Such is the way with wildlife sometimes, it's like they do it on porpoise! Although we were hoping to find some bigger cetaceans with beautiful sunset, surroundings and music meant that tour returned in high spirits.
-Ophelie Humphrey
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: The beautiful sun was shining as we set sail into Faxaflói bay, the sea was fairly calm with only a splattering of white caps. On the journey out a few puffins flew passed and we were able to enjoy their company as they floated on the waters surface only a few meters away. While sailing out a large flock of feeding seabirds were spotted which contained lesser black-backed gulls, kittiwakes, arctic terns and northern fulmars. On taking a closer look we were delighted with an epic air battle between a kittiwake and an arctic skua. The arctic skua is a kleptoparasite which means it scavenges and actively bullies the other birds into giving up the food its caught. This time the kittiwake was just to quick for the skua and was able to escape with its dinner. Once a bit further out our first cetacean was spotted. A minke whale surfaced about 200 meters from the boat, once nearer the animal we were able to see it twice more before it went for a much deeper, longer dive. At this point it was decided to check out another minke whale which was regularly surfacing only 300 meters away. This animal surfaced beautifully numerous times and fairly close to the boat being only 50 meters away at times. It was a quite small individual only being 5-6 meters in length, which may mean it was quite a young individual. After viewing this animal for quite some time, we headed out further into the bay where yet another minke whale was spotted. This animal surfaced a few times before we had to turn around and head for home. The sail home was lovely and smooth and the wind had even died down as we changed direction making it a very relaxing sail homeward.
Tess Hudson
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: Our first sighting began within 20 minutes of the tour with a pod of white-beaked dolphins. At least 5 individuals were present and even a juvenile was seen! We managed to catch glimpses of their fantastic white-striped flanks as they bow-rided the waves all around the boat offering our passengers great photo opportunities. Having watched these animals for over 10 minutes we decided to head out further into the bay. We encountered another larger pod of white-beaked dolphins who were even more playful than the first and who were milling about all around us. In search of more species we travelled in an arc around the bay towards the cone shaped Mount Keilir where we sighted the dark back of the Minke Whale! This animal surfaced once more before going for a deeper dive. It was fairly quick to surface again allowing us to marvel at it's arched back dive technique. We watched this animal surface and dive numerous times before heading back towards Reykjavik bathed in sunshine!
- Darcy Philpott
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: Conditions continued to be even better with some sunshine when we sailed out this afternoon. Only after twenty minutes of sailing we saw a minke whale in the distance. When we came closer to the animal, we were able to stay with it for a while and see it surfacing multiple times so that everybody could take some nice pictures, even of the whole snout of the animal. Then we decided to head further out into the bay and encountered two pods of harbour porpoises close after eachother. We counted 2-3 individuals in the first and at least 4 individuals in the other pod. Then we heard that white-beaked dolphins had been spotted not far away and we went to check them out. It was a pod of 5-7 individuals and most of our passangers could even see a calf with its mother swimming really close by which was super cute. When we moved on to the other side of the bay, we even saw another pod of white-beaked dolphins, this time at least 8 individuals and we could enjoy these pretty animals all over again. Then it was time for us to head back to the Old Harbour of Reykjavik. Another great tour with 3 species this afternoon.
- Barbara Neubarth
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: Although the morning had started cloudy we were happy to find nothing but sunshine out at sea. Our first sighting was of a quite elusive pod of 4-5 white-beaked dolphin that were constantly changing direction and making it hard to follow them. Whilst we were with these animals we spotted a small dark back 1 km out - a wonderful minke whale! This individual was only coming up to the surface once or twice between dives, so when we spotted some more splashes on the horizon we were more than happy to head in that direction and were rewarded with another pod of white-beaked dolphin! Although they didn´t continue leaping near us we did get a few close-ups before they picked up the pace and headed further out, presumably to feed. As we were quite far out we started to head home and on the way back were greated with not 1 but 2 more pods of dolphins. This second pod of over 15 individuals including several juveniles seemed very inquisitive of our boat, staying within 100 m in front of us and even splashing and jumping right at the bow! This awesome show was definitely the highlight of the tour and most of the passengers got great photos to remember it by, even taken from their phones. What a great last encounter and tour in the sunshine!
- Ophelie Humphrey
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: We sailed out with a full boat this morning, so nice to see so many that wanted to join us in some whale watching. We had a most pleasant sailing with weak winds and a calm sea. From time to time the sun even peaked through the clouds. First cetacean of the tour was a pod of 3-4 harbour porpoises that followed us for a short while and surfed the waves besides us. Soon we also found a minke whale! In the beginning it was difficult to even see the animal when it surfaced in different directions all the time. But after a while it showed itself very good when it was traveling alongside us for 3 surface sequences. We also got to show our passengers a pod of 3 white-beaked dolphins. Several times they surfaced close to us and we all got a chance of seeing these beautiful dolphins. Some quick encounters with more harbour porpoises were made at the same time as the dolphins. We returned to harbour after a 3 species tour. Over and out!
- Marcus Bergström
Bird species seen on todays tours include: northern gannet, northern fulmar, kittiwake, lesser black-backed gull, greater black-backed gull, herring gull, razorbill, common guillemot, puffin, arctic skua, arctic tern and eider duck.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. It is a bit windy so there could be some movement on the boat.
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