Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik on a beautiful but cloudy day. Wind is coming from the North and is 4-6m/s. There could be some movement on the boat.
Tour at 17:00
Report from Elding: What a bumpy ride we got tonight! This was by far the windiest and bumpiest tour of the day since the wind had picked up considerable more than predicted in the forecast. The way out was not too bad as we were looking for whales and dolphins again. After we got news from another boat about a minke whale, we turned around and headed over to that area. That´s when the wind was accompanied by slight to heavy rainfall as well, making the weather conditions particularly delightful for us. Unfortunately that boat lost track of the minke and 3 whale watching boats did not manage to find it again. This was the time when it also got a lot more bumpy and the swell rocked our boat from side to side. We kept looking for this sneaky minke but also started to head back towards the harbour. I´m still impressed by numerous of our passengers that remained outside in wind and rain for 3 hours enjoying the choppy ride that our Bay gave us tonight. Unfortunately, we didn´t get to see any sign of cetaceans and therefore gave out complimentary tickets for another whale watching tour with us in Reykjavík or Akureyri within the next two years! I hope to see you again!
- Hanna Michel
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: The wind was picking up but the sea conditions were still alright and the whole tour felt smooth and with not much movement. This tour was very different from the morning tour when we saw mostly just dolphins. On this tour we saw at least 5 minke whales. one of them we followed for a good time, it seemed to be traveling on high speed and never went for long dives. It was probably the easiest whale of the tour. the rest of the minke whales were a bit more tricky. while watching one of the minkes we spotted a splash in at least 1 km distance. We headed there and found a pod of 5-6 white beaked dolphins, unfortunately they were only seen in few hundred meters distance, then they sadly disappeared and we never got a glimpse of them again. Our tour ended with a short sighting of 2 harbour porpoises that surfaced only a few times about 100 meters away.
-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: The first tour of the day started in better conditions than expected, but we could feel a strong wind in our faces. After some time of sailing we saw a few splashes in the distance and headed over to that area. The splashes acme from a pod of jumping white-beaked dolphins that we saw traveling through the water at a high speed. This group consisted of about 7 individuals, it was difficult to estimate since they were moving around a lot - typical dolphins. Every now and then they were leaping out of the water so that we could see their entire bodies with the white stripe and the white beak. More splashes far away told us that there were more dolphins around and we also got a look at those. This was a group of at least 15-20 white-beaked dolphins that showed us very coordinated behaviours as at least 10 individuals were always surfacing together! They gave us a bit of a show as some of them jumped out of the water repeatedly and slapped their tails on the water surface! These dolphins were very a lot of fun to watch while we also continued to look for a minke whale. We didn´t find any for a very long time and we had almost given up our hopes, when suddenly - only about 20 min from the harbour - a minke whale surfaced about 200 m away from us! We saw it 4 times before it went for a deeper dive and we continued our way back to the harbour. Most likely not all passengers got to see the minke but everyone that was still looking out, especially those that had remained outside - god a nice look at it in the end of the tour. Patience is the key!
- Hanna Michel
Bird species seen on today's tours include: northern gannet, northern fulmar, kittiwake, common guillemot, oystercatcher, and lesser black-backed gull.
- Image
- Image
- Image
- Image
