Sunday, 21 August 2016

Tour at 19:00

Report from Elding: The fine rain had ceased on this evening tour and the cloud broke. We sailed offshore and soon found a large pod of white-beaked dolphins, at least 10 individuals with very small and young calves. They were enjoying the sunset, leaping, breaching, tail slapping and head slapping and having a whale of a time. It was amazing to watch. It is never boring to enjoy these incredible and fascinating cetaceans. However, we wanted to see what else was in the bay and soon found a minke whale. Captain Gusti was great at predicting where the whale was coming up and every time it surfaced after a long dive it was less than 200m from us. Then suddenly it changed direct but when we looked closer we noticed that this minke whale had a larger dorsal fin and when two surfaces together it was clear. 2 minke whales heading in separate directions but both close to the boat. It was time to head home and enjoyed the musical talents of Bjarni and the sunset as we did so.

- Megan Whittaker

Tour at 17:00

Report from Eldey: More and more clouds had started covering the sky when we sailed out this evening, but the super calm sea made it still pleasant to sail out into the bay. Our first cetacean species on this evening full of wildlife were two pods of 2-3 and 3-4 harbour porpoises who set our passengers in good mood of what was more to come. We even saw a minke whale in the distance on our way out, but we continued to drive out straight towards the area where we had seen all the cetaceans in the afternoon. And we were certainly not disappointed. Soon we saw a pod of 5-7 white-beaked dolphins leaping out of the water in the distance for over 10 minutes non stop. When we arrived there they had already stopped leaping, however we still got really nice views of their beautiful wavelike patterns. As we moved on we encountered 2 minke whales. One came really close to the boat and we could watch it surfacing multiple times. On our way back to Reykjavik we saw another minke whale even closer and another pod of at leat 6 white-beaked dolphins who were likely resting. What a great ending to a day full of wildlife out in the bay.

- Barbara Neubarth

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: We had perfect spotting conditions: flat sea and no sun glare. Although it was a bit rainy and foggy at the beginning of this tour, at the end we had pretty good visibility. First we passed by a pod of 2-3 harbour porpoises. Then, a minke whale passed us by, about 200 meters away. We didn't stop as we decided to check the area in which we saw lot of species and individuals on previous tour. Despite, we could see this minke twice, pretty good, even though it was surfacing just 2 times in a row before a deeper dive. Soon we heard a humpback whale has been seen so we headed to that area. On our way, we came across another pod of 5-7 harbour porpoises. These ones were much closer, very active (probably feeding) and porpoising showing their almost full body out of the sea surface, so everyone had a great view of this the smallest cetacean species in Iceland. While still passing by and looking at the cute porpoises we saw a humpback whale fully breached 3 times in a row, in an area in front of us! At the time we approached the area, it was tail slapping very high, in front of the other whale watching boat. Soon we were left alone with this humpback so we could enjoy in its company for longer time, just moving parallel with it, on a respectful distance. Few times it showed us its beautiful flukes before going for deep dive and then, totally unexpected, it fully breached again! Just in front of us, 3 times in a row!!! While we were with the humpback, we spotted 3 minke whales in a distance too. On our way back, we spotted another humpback whale. We saw it fluking up very nicely twice, and then we needed to continue heading back to the harbour, as we were running out of time. On our way back, we saw plenty more cetaceans: one pod of 5-7 and another of 3-4 harbour porpoises, 3 minkes in a distance (the closest one was about 650 meters away) and even a pod of dolphins, far away (more than a kilometer). We saw 2 dolphins jumping simultaneously, but unfortunately they were too far, we didn't have time to check them out on this tour. It was really great to see so many cetaceans in the bay! And some were pretty active, which is always amusing to see :)

-Tena Šarčević

Tour at 13:00 

Report from Eldey: Wow! What an incredible tour!! As we set sail out into Faxafloi bay the sky was overcast and there was a slight drizzling of rain. However, the sea was mirror flat and there was little to no wind. After sailing for only 35-40 minutes a minke whale was spotted to the starboard side we were able to watch this animal surface at a distance as we continued out into the bay. We had heard from our sister boat þruma that they had seen lots of minkes surfacing together up ahead of us. Once in this area numerous minke whales surfaced all the way around the boat it was incredible at one time there was 9 different minke whales surfacing within 1 km just in front of us, a few of which were only 80 metres away! It was an amazing experience just to sit still with our engines off and watch these beautiful whales surface. The only sound being the breath of the whale and the occasional cry of a tern or an excited passenger. After viewing these amazing minke whales for quite some time, large splashes were spotted in the distance so we decided to check these out. Once closer these were identified as a large pod of 12-15 white-beaked dolphins. These dolphins  surfaced wonderfully coming up only 7 metres away from us at times and even jumping and leaping out of the water surface. Even the small calves were jumping next to their mothers sides. It was wonderful to watch these animals as they swam under the waters surface showing us their wonderful black and white patches covering the sides of their bodies. After viewing these animals for some time it was decided to leave and find something else as a few boats had followed our lead and we're now also watching the dolphins. But as luck would have it just 5 minutes later a further 3 minke whales were spotted at varying distances which we were able to view quickly as we continued our way west as one of the other whale watching boats had told us there was a humpback whale in that area. On our way there a pod of 4-6 harbour porpoises were spotted just in front of us! They were wonderfully close and came up only 20 metres away! We got an amazing view of this usually shy animal as you could even see them swimming under the waters surface just in front of us. Just as these lovely porpoises disappeared we spotted the large blow of the humpback whale in front of us and saw as it surfaced and raised its beautiful fluke into the air signalling a deep dive. Just as we got into position the humpback whale fully BREACHED out of the water!!! It's whole body clear out of the water, that's 40 tons of whale in the air!!! After coming crashing down in a wonderful splash it breached a further 3 times. It then surfaced a few times and caught its breath and then swam upside down and tail slapped the water. In what we scientists call inverted tail slapping. It's was amazing!! The behaviours this animal was showing! But as they say all good things come to an end and at this point time was running out and we did have to start heading back to harbour. However, the cetacean watching did not end with the humpback as a further 5 minke whale and 4 separate pods of harbour porpoises were spotted on the way back. Words cannot express how incredible this tour was! And I hope everyone like me will be smiling for the rest of the day! 

- Tess Hudson

Tour at 1000

Report from Eldey: It was a very busy morning, over 300 passengers on two tours but the weather was fantastic, could not have been better. The sea was like a mirror, overcast skies but this made the sea light grey in colour, which made spotting the dark black backs of whales that much easier to spot. It was incredible minke whales and harbour porpoises everywhere. We wanted to get out to the prime whale watching area, 40 minutes sailing offshore so we passed one minke whale and at least 2-3 pods of porpoises. I think throughout the whole tour we must have seen at least 20-30 porpoises and they were easy to see as they splashed and even on occasion leaped passed. Once to our prime area we found ourselves surrounded by 4 minke whales and a pod of 5-7 white beaked dolphins. Dolphins were a little elusive so we didn’t stay long. We searched for another minke whale to try and get a bit closer to and found one feeding under a flock of seabirds. On the way home we saw at least another 2-3 minke whales traveling past. A wonderful tour for sure.

- Megan Whittaker

Tour at 09:00

Report from Elding: Calm seas, clouds covering almost all the skies, no winds, and a faint misty that was adding that extra enigmatic touch to the first whale watching tour of the morning. A perfect scenario for the show we were about to see. Today was minke whale day: we saw the first individual about 35 minutes after our departure. The first of more than 12 animals that we managed to see throughout the tour! At certain point, it was almost impossible to see a empty spot in the sea without the presence of one of these magnificent animals. And wherever a minke was missing, we had several different pods of about 3-5 harbour porpoises plowing faster though the seas, sometimes even jumping. To end the tour, we saw at last a humpback whale, probably feeding. We were leaving the animal when, suddenly, it breached in our back! Just in front of some lucky passengers that were still saying goodbye to the whale! We couldn't have asked for a better ending for this fantastic first tour of the day.

- Alberto Alejandro

Bird species seen on todays tours: atlantic puffin, northern gannet, kittiwake, lesser black-backed gull, arctic skua, great skua, eider ducks, cormorants, common guillemot, black gulliemot, manx shearwater, sooty shearwaters, arctic tern & northern fulmar.

Status: RUNNING

We are sailing out from the old harbour in Reykjavík today. The sea is calm and the weather mild. So make sure you are booked on the next whale watching tour today to witness with us the incredible sights of whales and dolphins in their natural habitats