Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik on a beautiful and sunny day. There is little to no wind but there can always be a little movement on the boat out on Faxa Bay.
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: Wow what a windy afternoon it had become! I was worried that this would make spotting cetaceans very hard but I cuold not have been more wrong; a blow from even our smallest cetaceans could be seen so clearly. After reaching Grotta we heard of a whale sighting just behind us so turned around and found our first minke whale, so close to harbour. This poor individual seemed to be really battling the large waves, but this gave us a great view of it's blows and large, brownish streaky body for its ~8 surfaces between long dives. We headed out south where Captain Larus spotted a large blow, but as we only saw it once we decided not to pursue it and instead stayed around the at least 4 other minkes whales we spotted just off Grotta! Whilst watching these we had the most incredible encounter with a pod of ~12 harbour porpoises; they absolutely blazed in towards the front of the boat, came within 20 m where they surfaced with us and were visible underwater, then started to head off after a few minutes. Although we came in early and with tired eyes due to the strong winds it was a truly fantastic and unexpectedl tour!
- Ophelie Humphrey
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: The wind had picked up since the morning tour. Still pretty good and warm but the weather and sea conditions were getting a bit rougher. All the whale-watching boats in Faxafloi were having troubles to find the cetaceans today but after about an hour of sailing we got to see a minke whale! very elusive animal at first very friendly at last!It was also rolling on top on the water so we could see a bit of the fluke of the animal too! It was sort of a weird move for a minke whale but we were there to witness it. Awesome. It also performed some head slapping too. It was very close to the boat also. Maybe about 30 meters away from us. Hard tour at first but lovely ending in the end!
- Jorge
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: The nicest tour of the day in terms of sea conditions started with 3 different pods of harbour porpoises as we were heading out in to the Bay. The first two pods were just traveling by, the third one may have been feeding in front of us as they were going all in different directions and making a lot of splashes. Shortly after the third pod of porpoises we came across a pod of white-beaked dolphins. They were a bit elusive in the beginning and it looked like it was only 3, maybe 4 individuals. However, more and more dolphins appeared around us, came together and in the end it was at least 15-20 dolphins traveling together at a high speed. There were a lot of juveniles and calves in the group as well which is always very nice to see! After a god while we left the dolphins alone and headed further out. Suddenly, the typical smell of minke whale breath hit us on the top deck and we slowed down to try to spot the stinky minke. It surfaced a couple of hundred meters away from us and was probably feeding in the area. We got some really good looks at it and as it was going back and forth without moving to much and coming up to the surface very frequently. After leaving the minke whale in peace to head back to Reykjavík, we got a look at another three minke whales in the Bay!
- Hanna Michel
Birds species seen on today´s tours: northern fulmar, lesser black-backed gull, northern gannet, common guillemot, juvenile black-legged kittiwake.
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