Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: The fog had really cleared up by this evening, meaning that we had a great view of Mount Esja as we left the harbour. Just past the lighthouse we saw our first pod of 5 white-beaked dolphins. They didn't seem too keen to stick around though so we moved on and were soon surrounded by minke whales. The minkes were coming up left, right and centre, it was so difficult to keep track. At one point it was possible to just pick any side of the boat and you were almost guaranteed that a minke would pop up! On our way to a giant flock of birds, some friendly harbour porpoises turned up and swam close to the boat. One even breached! Just before we returned to port we had an amazing encounter with 7 white-beaked dolphins, which stayed with the boat for a while. There were two calves in the pod that were very excited and continued to breach for us, it was adorable. It was honestly a fantastic trip!
-Rachel Pool
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsúlan: What a day! The ocean was so calm and clean the sky was completely overcast but this really helped us to see the cetaceans and lucky the rain had stoped. It wasn´t long before we saw the first 1-2 harbour porpoises pop up. We saw a minke whale not long after that, it was traveling away from us so we didn´t really stop for it. In the distance we saw more boats and there we knew there would me more to see. And yes we got to see some more minke whales and even a pod of about 8-9 white-beaked dolphins. They where playing around the boat and even jumping a bit out of the water. Drugging the whole tour we where followed by harbour porpoises they kept on swimming around the boat and randomly popping up. On the way back we even got to see and other minke whale, this time very close to the boat. Also the sun came out a bit so could really enjoy and think back on the tour.
- Alexandra Bouman
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: What an incredible tour! The weather was similar to the morning and the sea conditions were even better than earlier, meaning we were looking at a mirrorlike water surface in Faxafloi. So, it did not take us long to find our first cetaceans - a pod of 5-6 white-beaked dolphins, which seemed to be feeding in the area. After everyone had a good look at these animals we sailed further out to look for something bigger... And it turned out this was the right decision - not even 10 min later we saw our first minke whale. But this one was not the only one. We found us to be surrounded by 4 (!!) of these gorgeous creatures, surfacing in different distances to the boat. Two of them seemed to be a pair travelling together, coming up to the water surface as close as 20m to the boat a couple of times. After we spend some time we saw another pod of 4 very relaxed white-beaked dolphins which came super close to the vessel allowing us to watch them swimming even under the water surface. Before we had to go back home we saw another pod of about 8 white-beaked dolphins travelling by at quite some speed, some of them leaping out of the water. On our way back we saw 2 more minke whales peacefully surfacing in just about 100m distance to us. This tour was definitely one of these one-in-a-life-time experiences!
- Nicole Koestner
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsúlan: Clouds everywhere and rain that came and went through the tour - but such a flat ocean! Absolutely brilliant spotting conditions for us. We had 8 minke whales throughout our tour and 3 pods of white-beaked dolphins. The largest pod, with 12-13 individuals, was having such a fun time with us, always diving underneath the boat and showing up again on one side and then the other. Birds were in large flocks in several locations, too, as well as a group of 4 harbour porpoises on our way back. We just had so much wildlife all around, we didn't know where to look first or to point our cameras. So in the end we did what is best - put away the cameras and just enjoy.
- Sabrina Voswinkel
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: The sky was completely overcast this morning as we set off and there was some light rain. Despite this, the conditions were perfect for whale-watching as the sea was flat calm and the clouds meant that the sea surface was a uniform grey, ideal for spotting the black backs of the whales and dolphins. Sure enough, not too long after leaving the harbour we saw our first species of the day. We encountered 5 white-beaked dolphins that approached us quite close and stayed with us for just over 10 minutes. Not too long after leaving the dolphins we had a minke whale pop up only 100 metres away from the front of the boat! After that it was just one minke after another, we even got to smell their breath at one point. In between minkes, we had some unusually friendly harbour porpoises that stuck around the boat for a good twenty minutes. What an amazing trip, so much wildlife!
-Rachel Pool
Bird species seen on today's tours include: northern gannets, northern fulmars, black-legged kittiwakes, lesser black-backed gulls, arctic skuas, common guillemots, atlantic puffins, arctic terns, black-headed gulls, comorants, black guillemots and eider ducks.
Tour status: RUNNING
Weather conditions are quite good, south-easterly winds of about 3 m/sec and light rain.
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