Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: We sailed out in beautiful weather! The sun was shining, it was warm and the ocean was so still it was like a mirror. We had only been sailing for about 7 minutes when we spotted our first humpback whale of the tour. It was surfacing a lot and we could see the blows very clearly because they caught the sunlight and sometimes we even saw rainbow colors when the blows were disappearing. Then suddenly it tail-lobbed! Tail-lobbing is when they raise their fluke or their tail out of the water and then slam it sideways. After that it went for a deeper dive so we were looking all around the boat when we suddenly saw it under the surface about 5 meters away on our left side! We were so excited in the guiding box that we started laughing hysterically. We were just so surprised and happy at the same time! After that it went for a deeper dive and then we spotted a second humpback really close so we decided to pay that one a visit. It was surfacing frequently like the first one and showing us its fluke and we even spotted a third humpback further out but we decided to stay with these two. When we had spent some time with the second humpback we wanted to check up on the first one but as we were approaching it suddenly breached! And again! And again! It breached seven times in a row! It was absolutely amazing! And we were only about 15 minutes from the harbour so we were able to spend about 2 1/2 hours with these whales! As we were about to head back to the harbour the second one also breached! Three times! And it was only about 80 meters away! An awesome end to an amazing tour with not one but two breaching humpback whales!
-Bryndís Ösp
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: Sometime the sun was playing hide and seek during this tour, as it got a little bit more cloudy, but overall the weather remained warm and sunny, to our delight. Luckily for us, the humpback whale we saw on the morning tours stayed close to land, and we could find it about half an our after our departure. It was in a more quiet mood, swimming straight forward, surfacing slowly and lazily. As there were other boats around sighting this cetacean, we stayed at the reasonable distance of the animal, and when most of the boats went away we could get closer and have a better look at it. After staying a while with this whale, we decided to leave it alone and to look for something else. After sailing for a long time, we found a second humpback ! This one was more tricky to follow, taking long deep dives, but we got the opportunity to see it very well as it surfaced less than 50 m from our boat at several occasions. At some point we were running out of time so we went back to Reykjavik harbour, the sun in our back but with a chilly wind cooling us down. Nice time with the humpbacks !
- Guillaume Calcagni
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: The weather stayed amazing and it was wonderful sailing out on the bay. Our first encounter was with a relaxed humpback whale that was traveling slowly so we got really good look at it. We soon heard of another humpback whale and on our way to that individual we spotted a minke whale. This was a fantastic minke! surfaced slowly and few times so close that we heard its breath! our second humpback was a bit more elusive going for long dives but it at least it showed us its fluke when it dived! Because it was elusive we decided to search for other animals and after 20 minutes we found our 3rd humpback whale. It was easy to follow an so close that we could see its pectoral fins through the water! Unbelievable tour with stunning weather and close and easy encounters with 2 species.
-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir
Tour at 10:00
Report from Skruður: Nice morning the bay, warm sun and weak wind, that's all we ask for ! Topping that off, we heard about a whale exceptionally close to the harbour. As soon as we left the harbour we dashed toward the promised area and quickly spotted the blow of a humpback whale ! We had a great time with this individual, it was feeding and not minding us, surfacing next to us and having a good meal ! The icing on the cake was those cheeky arctic terns skimming the water after the humpback surfaced, trying to get some leftovers. Satisfied of this humpback, we went further away to try to find other species. Unfortunately we were not successful, but we were not unlucky either, as on our way back we met again the same humpback whale. We could have pleasant additional looks, all of this in a great scenery with sunlight on the land. If it is not a successful morning, I don't know what is !
- Guillaume Calcagni
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: What an incredible morning to go out whale watching. Blue sky, sun galore and no wind with an almost mirror like surface. In short, perfect conditions for whale watching and not only the conditions were hard to beat today. Only after 15 minutes of sailing, we saw the blow of a humpback whale just outside of the islands around Reykjavik. When we came closer, the humpback showed us some incredible behaviors including tail slaps and inverted tail slaps many, many times. Then we actually wanted to look a bit further out into the bay, but then the humpback started breaching seven times in a row and of course we couldn't miss the spectacle. After over an hour we continued and only 10 minutes later we found another humpback whale and could stay with this animal for a while. We then continued our journey out and encountered two minke whales relatively close to each other and likely feeding. It was hard to decide which one to follow. When it was time for us to head back, we stopped at the humpbacks again and were waved good-bye by their flukes. A truly amazing whale watching tour this morning.
- Barbara Neubarth
Bird species seen on today's tour include: arctic tern, lesser black-backed gull, kittiwake, atlantic puffin, razerbill, northern fulmar, black guillemot, arctic skua, eider ducks and black headed gull.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. It a beautiful day and little to no wind but there can always be a more movement on the boat in the Faxabay
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