Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: The wind had picked up a little so the water was a bit more choppy so it was a little more challenging to spot the animals than on the earlier tour. Even so we got great views of the cetaceans this evening, and all four species seen! The first sighing was a pod of 4-5 harbour porpoises that swam past by us, most likely not seen by many passengers as they surfaced fast at least 80 meters away. The second sighting was a pod of 7-8 white beaked dolphins. The dolphins swam all around us so we could easily see their whole bodies under water! The dolphins jumped a few times out of the water when they started speeding and traveling further out on the bay. The huge splashes were seen far out, we never got to see what it was as the animal calmed down before we got close enough to see the body of the animal, but we are sure it was large as the splashes were easily seen from such a great distance. At least 4 minke whales were seen surfacing around in this area but as soon as we turned to follow them a large blow was seen 1 kilometer away. This was a humpback whale! It was by far the best sighing of the tour, as it was curios and came right next to us! What a great end of the weekend.
-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: Still we were so lucky with the weather today. With no change really to our previous tour, we still enjoyed a lot of sunshine and calm seas. Spotting condition were great to see animals even from far away. Our first sighting of the day was a minke whale feeding in an area with several flocks of birds. As we slowed our engines to watch this minke whale, we saw another 3 around it, 2 of these very close by, feeding as well, and one further in the distance. They came up to the surface numerous times and slow enough for everyone to see and take photos. We left them so they could continue feeding undisturbed and kept going around the bay, spotting. Sure enough, we found a young humpback whale that also appeared to be feeding when we arrived closer to it. Then it actually came right underneath our boat and stayed close by. Due to three other boats starting to approach the area, however, we left it's presence so at least we wouldn't also be surrounding it. Everyone was happy with the encounters we had, especially with the humpback whale showing it's fluke!
- Alexandra Bouman
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsulan: That was one of my best tours&days ever! First, the weather was perfect, what not happens often on Iceland. Second, the encounters with animals were amazing. It didn't take us long to found a pod of around 10 white-beaked dolphins and watching them was really pleasurable: they were jumping around and especially two dolphins calves were in playfully mood making acrobatic shows. Few moments later we had spot a humpback whale. This one seemed to resting or taking sun bath, but after a while we realized that this whale was watching us! Humpback was swimming slowly making circles around us while we were drifting with engines off. In few moments it's get extremely close to us - we could see full whale body trough the water when its was almost touching the boat. There is extremely magical in being so close to this magnificent animals, particularly if it's their initiative, not ours. We spend there most of our tour time. When finally we decided go a little bit further before going back we had a incredible sighting of a minke whale. We were watching one individual in 300m distance, when suddenly another one surfaced slowly not further then 20m from our eyes. We could see minke's sharp snout,eyes, white patches on flippers and tail. And it happened twice! Amazing tour!
- Ewa Malinowska
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: Now this is what we'd like it to be like every day. Sunshine and a flat sea surface that enables us to see very far along the horizon. The ride out into Faxafloi was just so enjoyable in the sunshine! What made it even more enjoyable, of course, were the marine mammals we encountered. First we spotted 3 white-beaked dolphins but they were traveling, thus not interested to interact with us. So instead, we moved on to an area where we had spotted a blow from about 3 km away. This blow proved to actually be 2 humpback whales. Before we got there, we were greeted by some awesome and interactive harbour porpoises that just showed up all around the boat! Of the hupback whales, one was feeding in the area, while the other was milling. We stayed with the milling humpback, since it was coming to the surface nice and slowly and also very predictable because with the sunlight we could see it under water even before it surfaced. After about 20 minutes, it decided to interact with us!! It came within a few metres of the boat and did one circle around, looking at everybody. It was a very special moment for everyone. Inbetween, we even saw a minke whale surface 3 times. After one hour we decided it was better to leave this humpback whale to itself and travelled through the bay some more. We spotted anther pod of 3 white-beaked dolphins, that was more interested in us. They were very nice to watch and even to photograph. Everyone really enjoyed this trip and no one wanted to be inside with animals being around all the time and just fabulous weather.
- Sabrina Voswinkel
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsulan: What an awesome day for whale-watching. We left the harbour under clear sunny skies with very little wind. For one of the first times ever, I wasn't cold in the guide box at any point during the trip and almost no one was wearing the overalls. Rounding the lighthouse, we immediately honed in on a massive flock of seabirds where there were already a couple of boats lurking. To our great pleasure, we could also see almost volcanic eruptions of blows as we drew closer - and there were two humpback whales! They were feeding and surfacing everywhere, it was fantastic! The birds were echoing every movement of the whale beneath the surface, so all we had to do was follow the way the birds were flying to see where the whale would come up! Once the frenzy had dissipated somewhat, we trundled along to find a different species and we were rewarded by a coupple of minke whales! The usually solitary animals had obviously heard there was a party in the area as they were also feeding and surfacing very close to the boat. On our way back there was such a relaxed atmosphere on the boat, a definite summer vibe, I could even hear passengers singing at the back!
-Rachel Pool
Tour at 9:00
Report from Eldey: What a day! The weather was amazing! Very sunny the sea was calm and there was almost no wind. We left the harbour and we saw right a way a lot of bird flying around in big flocks. This is always a good sign for us because it means there is fish, food for the whales. While we where on our way to the bird out of no where white-beaked dolphins where jumping on our right side. So nice to see tees happy animals. But they left soon, so we continued our way to the birds. There we found two humpback whale feeding. So nice to see them and we also got a look at the baleen plates. After spending some time with them we made a circle looking for something els. We did get a look on an other humpback whale. On the way back a minke whale popped up very close to the boat but we only go to see it once. What a nice tour!
- Alexandra Bouman
Birds seen today: Black Guillemot, Common Guillemot, Atlantic Puffin, Norther Fulmar, Great black-backed gull, Lesser black-backed gull, Black-legged kittiwake, Common gull, Manx Shearwater, European storm petrel, Northern gannet, Arctic tern, Arctic Skua, Razorbill and Herring gull.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik in this beautiful weather today. There is little wind today so the sea conditions are good. All our boats have inside and outside areas and to make the tour even more comfortable we provide warm overalls. We are looking forward to seeing you!
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