Tour at 19:00
Report from Elding: Calm wind and sea for our evening tour, yet there was some swells. Nothing that would impress our tough passengers though. So it was mostly a smooth ride for us. Some passengers spotted a minke whale quite quickly, but a very shy individual that only surfaced twice in our company then disappeared. So be it ! We were only within the first half of our tour, so we only had to move forward and keep on checking carefully the bay. It didn't take long before we found a relaxed pod of 8-10 white-beaked dolphins. After a day of struggle with the cetaceans it was so refreshing to witness such easy animals ! The dolphins were going under the boat over and over, then surfacing close to us, sometime synchronically. We could follow their white spots under the water, and predict where they would surface ! After enjoying them for a while we left them to look for other species, until it was time to head back home. An easy ride with nice music form our on board troubadour made a delightful end for this trip.
- Guillaume Calcagni
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: The wind had picked up during the day so it didn't feel as warm as in the morning and the thick clouds gave the bay a dark color so it felt a bit more difficult to spot animals with less light. Our first sighting was of 3-4 harbour porpoises that traveled on high speed past us, we followed them for a few minutes so most of our passengers got a good opportunity to see them. This was a good practice to spot our next animal that was easier to follow, that was a minke whale. We followed the minke for a about 20 minutes and it surfaced a few times within 100 meters. Even though we searched further out on the bay we did not find anything else except for another pod of 2 porpoises right before entering the harbour of Reykjavik.
-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: Tough luck for us on this tour, the wind had slighted picked up compared to this morning, but overall temperatures were merciful and visibility was decent. We had to face off some swells during our wandering in the bay, inflicting sea sickness on few unlucky passengers, but mostly it was kept low. Having heard of a minke whale, we joined other whale watching boats for what proved to be a difficult sighting. We ended up following a minke that was taking long deep dives, hardly showing itself. After many attempts to see it closer, we decided to settle for another minke whale that was in our close surroundings. This one was surfacing more frequently, but was way more unpredictable. It took us all what we got to keep tracks of it and show it to the passengers, but after a while it got away from us. Still not disheartened, we began to move again and found a third individual. This was not either a very cooperative individual, but as it was swimming in the same direction than us, we could have easier glances for few minutes, and then it surprised us by surfacing less than 50m close to our boat before vanishing. On this tour, we had to struggle to get our sightings, which made us appreciate us more the glimpses we had, and the good season that we were having so far.
- Guillaume Calcagni
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: It rained quite a bit throughout the tour so the red over-alls came to good use. We hadn't sailed for a long time when another whale watching boat told us about a pod of white-beaked dolphins in front of us. There were about 4-5 of them and we got to spend some time with them before they disappeared. When we lost sight of the dolphins we continued our search and soon heard of another smaller pod of white-beaked dolphins and there turned out to be about 3-4 of them. We were approaching the second pod of dolphins when a minke whale suddenly popped up on our right side! Since we had already seen some white-beaked dolphins we decided to change direction and go look at the minke whale instead. It came up often between short dives and even came really close to the boat so we were able to get a good look at it before it was time to head back to the harbour. A nice tour with two pods of white-beaked dolphins and a minke whale.
- Bryndís Ösp
Tour at 10:00
Report from Eldey: It was a calm and a good day for spotting wildlife so we were optimistic for spotting cetaceans on this tour. Our first sighting was a minke whale that popped up only 100 meters away from us while we were still close to Reykjavik. We watched it surface one more time before we headed to another minke we spotted few hundred meters further out. This minke we got great looks at, it surfaced few times within 100 meters away from our boat. After a great time with the minke we sailed further out on the bay, on our way to our main sighting areas we spotted a pod of 3-4 harbour porpoises. Soon we got news from another boat of dolphins. When we got there we saw 3 white beaked dolphins that were first traveling on high speed, soon they slowed down so it was easier to follow them. This was a nice way to end our morning tour.
-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir
Tour at 09:00
Report from Elding: We set sail on an overcast but fairly warm day. On sailing out into the bay a small pod of 2 white-beaked dolphins were spotted. But they only surfaced very quickly so most of the passengers were unable to get a good look. As we continued further out into the bay a further two pods were spotted. Thankfully the last pod surfaced nicely only 100 meters from the boat. They popped up numerous times so we were able to see their beautiful white patches and large dorsal fins. Unfortunately, these animals were being a bit elusive and going for long dives making them a bit hard to follow. So we decided to move on further into the bay. The other whale watching boats let us know that there were also minke whales in the area. So we stopped and tried to view them. We were able to watch three different minkes surface but again these animals were taking long dives and being very elusive so unfortunately some of the passengers were not able to get a look at these animals. Due to this we decided to offer complimentary tickets to allow the passengers to come again on one of our tours for free. Nevertheless, it was a nice sail back to harbour as the wind was warm and gentle.
-Tess Hudson
Bird species seen on todays tours: atlantic puffin, common guillemot, black guillemot, eider duck, northern fulmar, ,,blue fulmar,, arctic tern, kittiwake, arctic skua, red-necked phalarope & lesser black-backed gull.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the old harbor in Reykjavík today. The sea might be a little choppy but the day is looking very promising. Hopefully you will be able to join us today to see these magnificent giants !