Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: Evening started really well, nice weather conditions but a light rain in Reykjavik. As soon as we left the harbour we enjoyed a calm sea and sun in our face, we even had to put some suncream! Everything seemed to go well but time went and we couldn't find any cetaceans. After searching in our main spotting area we saw few minke whales now and then, scattered in the bay but we couldn't get close to any of them. Suddenly, when we were about to give up, minke whales started to pop up everywhere. It didn't matter in which direction you were looking at, minkes were there, close, far, in between, it was a fantastic moment! We decided to come back after a fast encounter and we faced strong wind from the north, making the return a little bit complicate. Despite all the difficulties, we had an extra-surprise waiting for us just in front of the harbour. Two humpback whales were surfacing few times just in front of Reykjavik, it was a magical moment, not a common sighting after all.
-Rodrigo A. Martinez Catalan
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsulan: Leaving the harbour we had good conditions with a bit of wind from the West. While it was mostly cloudy, the sun came out later and conditions only got better as the trip went on. About an hour and a half into the trip, some of the other whale watching boats spotted one or more minke whales, so we decided to join them. While we only spotted a whale from far away and continued to look for a minke, we were joined by a pod of around 3 harbour porpoises. Other than usual, these guys were very inquisitive and came quite close to the boat. At these calm conditions we were able to see them quite well and two individuals of this pod seemed to be juvenile, as they were even smaller than the usual harbour porpoise. After about 10 minutes of seeing the harbour porpoise we continued our search for some other species. This took a little longer than expected, as the sea conditions very pristine and the visibility was incredible. With about 45 minutes to an hour left in the trip, we spotted a minke whale on our left. As we were the last boat out and the sea was very calm, this minke seemed not too bothered by us. The minke got as close as 20m to our boat and at one point you could even see the white bands around its pectoral fins through the surface of the water. While we did not see a large amount of animals, the sightings we had were of great quality and the sighting of the harbour porpoise alone was a highlight and something we don´t get every day!
- Friedrich Rittner
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: What a minketastic tour! The conditions were just lovely today, with a rather calm sea, little wind and clouds. Now you may think clouds are a bad thing when its comes to spotting cetacean, however, against the water they create the most perfect contrast. The first species to pop up were the usually shy harbour porpoises, however, none of the porpoises we saw today were shy! They surfaced many, many times, all round the boat, coming up numerous times just in front of us and even leaped out of the water and performed their famous porpoiseing behaviour. While we were enjoying the wonderful porpoises a minke whale surfaced, then another, then another! These animals surfaced very slowly so we got to see their beautiful grey/ black bodies rising from the waters surface. These animals surfaced many times, then a few more minke whales decided to join the party. Throughout the tour we must have seen at least 8 minkes and 40 porpoises, which were my personal highlight as we were able to see them in any direction you looked, throughout the whole tour! Truly incredible!
-Tess Hudson
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsulan: The weather was very nice, a bit sunny, mostly clouded and just a little bit of wind. Also the sea was very calm so perfect weather for spotting whales. As soon as we left the harbour we heard there was a humpback whale in the area. We found him very quickly, and he stayed around the boat for a bit of time, he even was swimming just next to the boat, so we had a great look at him we could even see him under water because he didn´t go for a deep dive and staid close to the surface. After spending some time at the humpback whale we left him to look for some other cetaceans. And we found some nice minke whale they were a bit harder to follow because they only came up a view times. On the way back some harbour porpoises came next to the boat, but they left very quickly. Overall it was a great tour!
- Alexandra Bouman
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: When we departure this morning from the old harbour we left with an uncomfortable feeling because the sky was cover by clouds and temperature has dropped compare with previous days. Nonetheless the day couldn't have been better! As soon as we reach our main spotting area we found out a minke whale, but it wasn't everything. The bay seemed to be plenty full of minkes today, we saw at least five of them in the same area. When we had enough of minkes, we decided to test our luck a little bit more and we sailed further. Fortunately, the best of the lucks was with us and we spotted a group of white-beaked dolphins. We were delighted by their playful calves jumping out of the water. Time went up and we had to return to Reykjavik but in the way a small harbour porpoise appeared just in front of the boat. Soon after arriving to the port we got another surprise: a humpback whale popped up few minutes before we entered into the port, that was incredible! Despite the bad signs from the beginning, we had an extraordinary whale-watching tour!
-Rodrigo A. Martinez Catalan
Bird species seen on todays tours: arctic tern, arctic skua, common guillemot, atlantic puffin, manx shearwater, northern fulmar, kittiwake, black-backed gull, common gull, eider duck
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. There is very little wind and the sea is calm. Let´s hope the sun will come out from the clouds to meet us today.
