Status: Running
We are sailing out from the old harbor in Reykjavík on a quiet day. The wind is quite calm today and the conditions at sea are great. We hope you are able to join us to see these amazing giants in they're natural habitat .
Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: After a wonderful day of exciting encounters with our beloved cetaceans all around the bay, it was time to close the day with one final farewell tour. And obviously we were expecting of it to be as exciting as the others, although the slight rain that started to fall and the wind blowing with a little of intensity from the north. It took a little time to reach a good area, but at the end we spotted in the distance a blow of a humpback whale. As soon as we approached it, we manage to understand that the animal was particularly curious. The head of the whale was out of the water, spying what was going on in the surrounding areas. We accompanied the individual for several minutes, and we were also able to see how this animal was feeding on the abundant fishes that were today in the bay. We even got to see a fluke slapping! We spent a wonderful time with this individual, and in our way back home we also encountered a small pod of 3-4 white beaked dolphins traveling on the bay. Beautiful way to finish one of the most active days on Faxafloi in this summer!
- Alberto Alejandro
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: Compared to this morning, the weather conditions had change completely. Now the rain was falling down from the sky, almost piercing our eyes and the sea was choppy when we sailed out from the Old harbour. Almost all passengers were suited up in our nice overalls and really showed that they wouldn’t let the Icelandic weather stop them from seeing whales. I would like to call this tour “the humpback tour of the day” because we saw in total 7 humpback whales on this tour! The first blow was spotted by a passenger and we took a closer look at humpback nr 1 and stayed with it for a couple of minutes. We spent some time with humpback nr 2 as well and thereafter our next encounter was with a pod (3-5 individuals) of white-beaked dolphins. What was up next we could never have dreamt of. One, two..three… FOUR blows (!!!) were spotted in the distance 1 km away very close to each other. Maybe they were travelling together? When we got closer, 2 of the humpbacks were swimming just next to each other, surfacing in an almost perfect harmony. We could also see them lunge feeding! It is usually very rare to see 2 humpbacks swimming together, except around the breeding grounds, so I think every passenger was really happy to experience this moment. The blows of humpback nr 5 and 6 we could still see in distance in different direction from each other. Once again, we saw another pod of white-beaked dolphins on the other side of the boat. It was animals in any direction you looked at all around the boat! Really nice! :) On our way back we spotted humpback nr 7, breaching 800 m from the boat. Unfortunately, it started to travel away from us when we got closer, so we decided to leave him/her alone and continue our ride back home. This day makes you remember that sometimes rain can bring more joy and happiness than sunny days!
- Johanna Bergman
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: The afternoon started with a a bit of rain while we were sailing out from the harbour but the temperature was very nice. After half an hour we came across a harbour porpoise that just showed up twice before to go for a longer dive. Looked like the guy was a bit shy. Nevertheless we continued the sail out and few minutes after we spotted a humpback whale from few miles away. The blow was very clear from the distance. We could stayed next to the animal for a while, having a close look at the fluke several times and looking at the feeding and resting behaviors that it was doing. After that we decided to go and look for something else, and we found another humpback whale that it was doing some big splashes. When we came closer to the animal was flipper slapping and rolling at the surface, what a display! We stayed few more minutes with the animal and then we came back to the port.
-Alejandro Gracia
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: It was a great day for spotting cetaceans in Faxafloi. A wonderful flat sea with little wind and good visibility. As we sailed out we saw a number of seabirds, especially groups of puffins flying in a row heading out to feed and collect fish for their young. After about 30-40 minutes we saw our first blow. It was a humpback whale. We spent some time with it as it kept surfacing to breathe and diving. It was feeding and a number of seabirds, mainly arctic terns came to feed along with the whale. At times the whale surfaced quite close to the boat. At one point, it lunged dramatically exposing its baleen plates and the expanded throat grooves as it gulped a large school of small fish and water in one huge mouthful. Spectacular! We enjoyed this wonderful demonstration of feeding behaviour for some time before we moved on in search of other cetaceans. During this encounter we had a very brief sighting of a minke whale, but unfortunately, most of the passengers were unable to see it. Off in the distance we could see the fins of about 7 white-beaked dolphins, as well as the blows from 2 more humpback whales. We approached the dolphins who thrilled the passengers by swimming really close to the boat, diving under the boat and surfacing close on the other side. After they had finished checking out the boat they swam off and we made our way to watch another humpback whale. This whale was feeding too and was soon joined by a few of the dolphins from the pod we had been watching as well as a number of birds. It was wonderful to watch this associated feeding. As ever on these trips, time flew by and it was time to leave these amazing animals and head back to the harbour.
- Julia Benson
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: The conditions for spotting wild cetaceans were perfect. Although cloudy, perfectly flat sea, no wind and great visibility. The first species we spotted was a minke whale. We haven't approached it to see it closer as we heard there's a bit more attractive species, a humpback whale, in an area a bit further away, in front of us. Minke whale was about 1 kilometer away, traveling in opposite direction of us, so we were able to watch it from a distance for some time. The humpback whale we approached was feeding. We could even see tiny fishes coming to the sea surface next to the boat. The whale was making short deep dives, therefore we all had very nice look at its flukes, which it raised many times. It was also surfacing very close to the boat, and staying below the surface so we had a great look at its long pectoral fins and big body. Few times it surfaced with its lovely head above sea surface. There were many bird species around too, feeding and resting at the surface.We checked out also one pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins. At first they were changing direction of traveling often, so we increased our distance from them, giving them more space. It seemed we found out the distance which doesn't bother them so we were able to follow and observe them for a while. Before heading back to the port, we stopped by to see once again the same humpback whale, which was still around, now resting. On the way back crew saw another minke, but it surfaced just once, very fast, so passengers unfortunately didn't have time to see it. In all, still very nice, relax tour on a beautiful calm day.
-Tena Sarcevic
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: On a flat sea with a cloudy sky above we set sail towards the area where we encountered a lot of humpbacks yesterday. After 35 min sailing we saw two harbour porpoises surfacing 400 m from the boat. Since the conditions were really good today, it easy for the passengers to see these small whales. Right after the porpoises we spotted another large animal, but it was a bit difficult to say which species at first. When we moved closer we clearly could see that it was a humpback whale! The humpback came really close to the boat but we didn’t stay with this individual too long, because there was another humpback breaching 800 m away from us. We moved closer to humpback nr 2 instead and enjoyed the playful behaviour of this whale. It kept on surfacing 4-6 times, went down for a deeper dive and came up breaching from the surface. It was also tail slapping, rolling and waving with its long white flippers. What a show! We left the humpback in peace after a while to look for other species and headed further out in the bay. We spotted a minke whale on distance but since it only surfaced 2 times we decided to keep moving on. Two blows were spotted in the distance, humpback nr 3 and 4 ahead! We stopped for the closest whale and this time we could experience another behaviour, this humpback was feeding! It was really cool to see the fish coming up to the surface and then suddenly the humpback gulfed a lot of water where the fish were. To see wildlife like this makes you realise that life is just wonderful! On our way back to harbour we spotted 2 more porpoises and enjoyed the sun that was piercing through the clouds. A morning like this is absolutely the best way to start a day!
- Johanna Bergman
Bird species seen on today's tour include: kittiwake, arctic tern, atlantic puffin, common guillemot, greater black-backed gull, arctic skua, northern gannet, northern fulmar,