Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: the wind had picked up and the sun was hidden behind the clouds but still the conditions were nice. We sailed out but it was difficult to find the cetaceans. We did get a really quick look at a minke whale that surfaces once. A bit later we saw a humpback whale but he wasn´t really in a good mood. We all got a very brief look at him. On the way back we got some really nice live music, this was really fun!
- Alexandra Bouman
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: If at all possible, the weather got even nicer! We could see so far into the distance with no cloud cover and just lots of summer sun, that any spotting was brilliant. The first encounter on this trip was with 3 white-beaked dolphins. Although they seemed interested in us at first, they suddenly dissapeared after only a few minutes. Of course we stay optimistic when such things happen, as all cetaceans behave differently. Shortly after we spotted another pod of at least 5 white-beaked dolphins that was much more interested in us and entertained everyone. Once we had all gotten great looks and photos of these individuals, we decided to keep on going to try to find a whale. With the weather conditions, we spotted a large blow from very far away. As we got closer, it became obvious that it was a humpback whale. It was milling, so resting in the area, which made it's movements very slow, perfect to take photos of the whale, especially as it was lifting it's fluke. A really great trip with many photo opportunities of landscape and wildlife of Iceland.
-Sabrina Voswinkel
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsúlan: Summer is here in Iceland. These are the days that your happy to be at work. There is definitely something about being out on the sea, the sun on your face watching the wildlife swim/fly past. Our first cetacean of the tour was a minke whale, one of at least 5 we enjoyed watching. Then a pod of 7 white-beaked dolphins, with 3 babies in tow took our attention. We didn´t stay too long with them because it can be stressful if you constantly around the babies all the time. They were great but the best dolphins where a pod of 5 later in the tour that were awesome, came so close to the boat, one that we could recognise called ´Funny´a dolphin catalogued in 2007 and seen frequently since. A perfect day on the sea.
- Megan Whittaker
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: The clear sky, mirror-flat sea and warm weather gave us stunning visibility over the bay, it was definitely warmer than we are used to on the water! We decided to head straight out towards where the humpback whale was seen on the 10 o'clock tour, we traveled past some minke whales on the way. When we got to the area where the humpback was seen we spotted 3 minke whales spread out and 4 white beaked dolphins. We followed both these species around on the tour but always kept searching for the humpback that we unfortunately never saw. We stopped with 3 more minke whales on the way back, while we followed one of those minke whales we found our third species of the tour, 4-5 harbour porpoises! This was a fantastic day on the water.
-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsúlan: What another spectacular sunny day in Iceland! That is not a sentence you´ll read too often, but it´s so true. Today was such a perfect day for whale-watching with almost zero wind and glassy seas. The passengers today were in top form, using the clock-system to point out our first animals, a pod of 5 white-beaked dolphins. Before long we had caught up to even more dolphins, with them breaching left, right and centre, and a few coming very close to the boat. It was marvellous! We then had a minke whale teasing us with glimpses every now and then finally it stopped playing coy and came within 100-metres of the boat, surfacing twice before disappearing. On our way back, I was soon distracted by the sight of massive spalshes and blows in the distance - it was a humpback whale breaching in the distance! Thinking that it was too far away we still tried to get close and we were fortunate enough to have the whale breach within 100 metres of the boat several times - I didn´t count, I was too excited. As a result we were about half an hour late back to port but I asked all of the passengers and they agreed it was definitely worth it!
-Rachel Pool
Tour at 9:00
Report from Eldey: Our morning tour started out with weather we wish we had every day. With sunshine, no clouds and no wind, we couldn't ask for better conditions. Almost everyone went straight outside, not even needing an overall, and started looking all around for wildlife. Only about 45 minutes into the tour we saw our first minke whale of the day. The first two surfaces were close to our boat but as it went under it traveled quite far away and it proved to be difficult to follow. So instead we headed a bit further out, only about 5 minutes, to look for some dolphins another boat had been with before us. Although they had moved location, we still managed to find them - a pod of at least 6 beautiful white-beaked dolphins, alongside with another 2 minke whales in the same area. The dolphins were just wonderful, playing around with us and coming within less than 2 metres of our boat. They even swam underneath, dissapearing on one side and appearing again on the other. It was wonderful. However, more than half way through our tour, we had a medical incident. Due to this, we had to turn around earlier than we usually would to get back to harbour. All the passengers were of course offered complimentary tickets to come out on another tour with us and could all speak to our guide one to one, asking whichever questions they may have throughout the entire trip back. The injured passenger was taken best possible care of by medics that came straight to our boat as soon as we notified them. Together with our crew, they brought the passenger safely back to the harbour and transported the passenger to the hospital for further aid.
- Sabrina Voswinkel
Birds seen on today's tours: Common Guillemot. Atlantic Puffin, Northern Fulmar, Black-backed Gull, Northern Gannet, Arctic Skua, Arctic Tern, Storm Petrel, Cormorant, Herring Gull and Manx Shearwater.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavík on this beautiful day. We hope you are able to join us on the search of these magnificent animals in their natural environment.
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