FRIDAY, 19 AUGUST 2016

Tour at 19:00

Report from Elding: Excellent conditions continued making this night a great possibility to go whale watching. Especially the sunset was glorious throughout the whole trip. Just 15 minutes away from the harbour we spotted a pair of harbour porpoises. They were adorable and came considerably close. Then we continued further out and saw a minke whale in the distance, but it turned out to be a bit elusive so we went on searching for more wildlife. There were a lot of minke whales out in the bay that evening, however it was a pod of 5-7 white-beaked dolphins that caught our attention next. They entertained us for a little while and gave us the chance to get good looks of them before we moved on to 2 minke whales who were surfacing under a flock of birds. And we can say 'what a minke night', they seemed to be having a feast feeding on the rich fish stocks. We got super close looks of the minke whales and our passengers were delighted to see them so active. Then it was time for us to turn around and enjoy the sailing back to the harbour with the sunset in our backs and good music in our ears. A fitting ending for a great night out in Faxa bay.

- Johanna Bergman and Barbara Neubarth

Tour at 17:00

Report from Eldey: A strengthened wind was blowing on the bay during our trip, but globally we still benefited from excellent conditions for this trip. Merciful sea conditions, bright sun shining through the thin clouds, and plentiful of cetaceans ! A spotting fever took over our passengers that quickly found numerous animals. The first one to be sighted were the harbour porpoises. Faithful to their reputation, they quickly disappeared, only a few portions of our guest could see it. Not a big surprise for us, so we headed further away. In the process, passengers also spotted a minke whale, but we chose to go for a small pod if 3-4 white-beaked dolphins. We could follow easily these ones, they came close to the boat a couple of time and even leapt out of the water at some points ! We then moved again and ended up in an area where there was 5-8 minke whales surfacing everywhere ! It was an exciting and confusing moment, that peaked when among the minkes we spotted a huge blow that led us to a humpback whale ! It was easy to follow it and we could see its fluke twice ! At some points we saw water splashes in the distance, it was more white-beaked jumping out of the water. We left the humpback to try to see the show from closer but when we arrived close to the leaping dolphins they had calmed down, so we went back to have last looks at the humpback until it was time to head back toward Reykjavik. A last minke whale popped un in front of us on the way home, adding a nice bonus to a generous tour.

- Guillaume Calcagni

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: When we were sailing out this afternoon the weather continued to show its good side and a full boat set the good mood for this whale watching tour. After about 40 minutes of sailing we saw our first minke whale close to a large and very active school of mackerel. It surfaced really close to the boat one time before we could enjoy it for a couple of more surfaces from the distance. Then we continued our travel out into the bay and saw a blow close to other whale watching boats. It turned out to be Daisy the humpback whale and we stayed with it for about 30 minutes, because it showed its gorgeous fluke on a regular basis so that good pictures were almost guaranteed. On our way back we also saw a pod of 2-4 harbour porpoises and could enjoy more mackerels and a minke whale in the distance. A nice afternoon well spent.

- Barbara Neubarth

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: The surface of the water was still amazingly smooth over the bay when we sailed out of the harbour for our early afternoon tour. It did not take us long to spot our first minke whale, surfacing near schools of mackerels. Some of our passengers who managed to escape the mesmerizing show of the mackerels' schools and the exciting sighting of the whale caught a glimpse of a pair of elusive harbour porpoises. Convinced that the whale would still be around on our way back we decided to take advantage of the amazing weather to sail further out and take our chances for more sightings. We saw another couple of minke whales which we gave a nice look at before meeting a large pod of more than ten white-beaked dolphins. The cetaceans were not disturbed by our company and even came several times close to our boat as to meet us. We would have spend more time with them if we had not seen in the distance an enormous splash of water. A humpback whale had just breached out of the surface! We quickly reached the animal and had a nice look at its fluke as it dived for the depth of the bay. Our researchers on board had a nice look at the unique patterns of the fluke, which allow us to recognize each individual from one another, and they recognised a humpback whale we already saw few days ago in the bay and which they named "Daisy". Daisy surfaced several times close to our boat before waving its gigantic pectoral fin over the surface. After this farewell sign from the humpback whale we sailed back to Reykjavik and encountered another pod of dolphins and another minke whale on our way. 

- Remi Bigonneau
 

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: This morning was really beautiful with flat sea with no wind and raking light, it was almost like it would be a sunset. You couldn't have asked for more! The first species, 3 harbour porpoises were spotted already at the first boat on our way out in Faxafloi. Since the conditions were so good it was easy for all the passengers to spot them. After our first encounter we continued further out and the big schools of mackerel from yesterday were still present in the bay. These strange movements created by the fish looked similar to waves and fascinated both the crew members and the passengers. Two minke whales were swimming around and at one moment we saw one of them feeding on the mackerel. Just amazing to watch! More minke whales were to follow and it was almost hard to keep count of how many we have been seeing on this tour. We saw at least 10 minke whales! The third species we encountered was white-beaked dolphins. It was a big pod with at least 10 individuals. They were also feeding on the mackerel but were also very playful and came closer to us. They even started to bow ride in front of the boat! I think I was a bit overexcited on the microphone on this trip, but who wouldn't with all this wildlife in the bay? I hope the passengers weren't to bother with hearing me saying "ooh" and "wow" so many times, but I was not the only one on board shooting out my enthusiasm. What a great tour and what a great start of the day!

- Johanna Bergman

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: The weather was absolutely perfect this morning. No wind and so flat sea surface gave us optimal conditions for spotting wildlife. We got our first sighing after only 25 minutes, that was a feeding minke whale! It was active and came so frequently out of the water that we thought there were 2 individuals in that area. Many other minke whales were seen later on the tour, at least 10 individuals and 4 of them were seen within 15 meters distance. Between the minke sightings we also spotted 2 pods of 4-5 harbour porpoises. The most action that we cot on the tour was from 11-12 white beaked dolphins that made large splashes while jumping out of the water. We were able to stop our boat when we got closer to the dolphins and have them all round us. They often went under our boat and swam all around us so we could easily make out their bodies while they swam close to the surface.

-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Bird species seen on todays tour: arctic terns, northern gannets, northern fulmar, great skua, kittiwake, eider ducks, manx shearwater, sooty shearwater, atlantic puffin, common guillemot, lesser black-backed gulls, arctic skua, red-necked phalarope & northern gannets.

Status: RUNNING

We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. There is little to no wind but there can be movement on the boat out on Faxabay.