Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: Finally weather was fine: no rain, no swell, no wind. Even with overcast sky we were able to enjoy sailing trough calm sea. This time we decided to try something new and we try another path. We sailed along Reykjaness peninsula almost all the way to Keflavik and then we turned in direction of Akranes. It was so calm that we couldn't´t even find any flock of birds. Like always there was only puffins sitting on the water but nothing more active. In the last moment before heading back home another boat informed us about humpback whale. Unfortunately we were able to saw only few blows before animal went for really long dive. After almost 20 minutes of waiting we gave up and went home dissatisfied. We hope to see our passengers again because we offered them complimentary tickets for one more whale-watching tour.
- Ewa Malinowska
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: This was the driest of today's tours with some annoying rain only on the last 45 min, while at least all the beginning was dry. The spotting conditions were still fine as well, and after about 1 hour of sailing an animal popped up very close to the boat, just about 50 m away. However, it was difficult to see so quickly what exactly it was and unfortunately we did not get to see it again. Therefore, we continued our search further out into the Bay hoping to get lucky. We sailed out for some time without encountering anything besides a variety of sea birds. At some point we heard news from one of the other whale watching vessels, that they had come across a scattered group of white-beaked dolphins. Hoping for the best, we headed over to them and when we arrived, we got to see the dolphins a couple of hundred meters away from us making a lot of splashes. We were looking forward to get a bit closer to them and spend some time with them, but the dolphins had other plans. After just a few surfacings they disappeared. Together with the other boat, we spent a long time searching the area for these dolphins but they were nowhere to be seen.
Disappointed and soaked from all the rain, we headed back to Reykjavik and - as always in these cases - offered all our passengers a complimentary ticket so that they can join us on another tour for free. These tickets are valid for another tour within the next two years and can also be used in Akureyri in the North of Iceland!
- Alberto Alejandro
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsulan: Conditions sailing out were quite good for whale watching as it was mostly overcast and swell height was relatively low. Unfortunately it was raining a little bit and conditions got a little worse as the trip continued. After about 45 minutes of sailing we already spotted a minke whale, which was nice and we shortly after spotted another two individuals surfacing around 150m away from us. Unfortunately this remained the last sightings of the trip, so passengers were offered a complimentary ticket at the end of the tour.
- Friedrich Rittner
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: The conditions were not giving us a second of rest. Although there was a little bit less of wind, the rain kept falling and falling during the whole tour. During this tour, we were not as lucky as in the previous one. It took us almost one hour of sailing to spot the first individuals, a couple of harbour porpoises swimming really close to the boat and leaping out of the water. After that, just a few minutes later we spotted just two white-beaked dolphins but, unlike the ones we saw this morning this couple was indeed pretty shy and elusive. We already started to head back to the shore when, again, we saw a glimpse of a minke whale that surfaced three times before disappearing in the darkness of the bay. So for the first time in quite a long time we gave out some complimentary tickets to our passengers, since this tour didn't reach the amazing level we always like to offer to our guests! With them they will be able to come back on another whale watching trip with us within the next two years and hopefully the animals will be around the bay!
- Hanna Michel
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsulan: When it’s raining it’s hard to enjoy being outside but the good news is that whales don’t mind rain because they are already wet! Dressed up in overalls we start our morning adventure to see something more than clouds. It take us around 30minutes till we found pod of white-beaked dolphins. It was the biggest pod which I ever seen! Between 15 to 20 individual were swimming around us. Guessing from their fast movements, big area on which they were spread and presence of northern gannets this dolphins were feeding. They seemed to didn't’t care about our presence so we could stay with them for a while. Later on we went further to look for other cetaceans. The first thing which we notice was lack of flock of birds what’s could mean that there is not too much food around. It take us long time but finally we saw a minke whale. This individual surface close to our boat and then passed from our left side so we had few opportunities to take look at it. On the way back some dorsal fins of dolphins appeared between the waves but we couldn't’t find this animals again. Despite very Icelandic weather we cannot complain about this tour.
- Ewa Malinowska
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: The sea was just a bit bumpy this morning, although definitively the most annoying part of our travel was the constant drizzling rain that was pouring throughout the entire duration of the tour. Around 40 minutes after departure, quite soon we spotted the first cetaceans! A rather large pod of 10-12 white-beaked dolphins. The animals were incredibly active this morning, jumping and leaping all around, swimming underneath the boat and even bow-riding for some minutes! It's always nice to enjoy these animals, specially when they feel in the mood of making a little bit of human-watching! We resumed our sailing, but we didn't gaze any other cetaceans in almost half an hour. Then, in the distance, a second large pod of white beaked dolphins were jumping and breaching totally out of the water! Normally when we approach this animals the behave a little shy and stop this "flying " activities, but this time they kept launching their bodies out of the water for quite a while! Then we got news about a humpback whale nearby and we went to check it out. Unfortunately we only saw the animal making 2 big blows and going for a dive, and it never came back. Time was up and we had to start to head back, but we had a final encounter with another species: the minke whale. An individual surfaced just a few meters away from our boat, so the brave passengers that were still standing outside managed to give it a pretty good look!
- Hanna Michel
Bird species seen on today's tours include: northern gannet, northern fulmar, black-legged kittiwake, lesser black-backed gull, atlantic puffin, common guillemot, arctic tern, arctic skua and eider duck.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. We hope you are able to join us on the search of these magnificent animals in their natural environment.
