Tour at 20:30
Report from Eldey: It was typical icelandic weather with rain and an overcast sky. But with only very little wind, the trip was very pleasant, as everyone was wearing our overalls to stay dry. It took us quite some time, until we spotted our first animals of the day - a pod of very nice white-beaked dolphins! They came very close to the boat and were milling in the area. That means that their movements were nice and slow, good to watch and photograph. We left them to go looking for possibly more species. But instead we encountered 2 more pods of white-beaked dolphins, one with 7 individuals and one with 5. They were awesome, jumping and bow riding. That topped with the music on our way back made it a memorable trip.
- Sabrina Voswinkel
Tour at 17:00
Report from Hafsúlan: The sea conditions were even better than on the afternoon tour although the wind had picked up a little. The humpback had clearly moved on from the area close to Reykjavík as we never saw that one on this tour. However we saw 2 minke whales on our way to the sighting grounds. Both of them were a bit elusive but most passengers got to see it at some distance from the boat. Our best sighting on the tour was definitely the white beaked dolphins. First we saw 2 dolphins traveling together, we got good looks at the animals but after a while we spotted a much larger pod, around 10 individuals.We stayed with this pod until we had to turn around to go back to land. It rained on the way back but at least it felt rather warm on the bay.
-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: Sailing out, the conditions for whale watching were good with low swell height and an overcast sky. Right out the gate we spotted a single humpback whale close to Grótta. It was pretty calm and did not show much of itself. It surfaced about three times between each dive and stayed down for between 5 to 10 minutes. Just before heading further out, the whale came up and did a peduncle throw, which was exciting. After this special behaviour it went for another dive showing its fluke and after staying down for a while, we decided to look for more different species and leave this one alone. Sailing through our main sighting area, we didn´t see too much, but we were eventually met by a pod of four white-beaked dolphins which was awesome! They were in a good mood and came quite close to the boat. At one point they were even bow-riding in front of our boat as well as the boat of reykjavik-by-boat which was next to us. This was a nice good bye and after continuing to see them, sometimes leaping out of the water, we headed back happy with the day.
- Friedrich Rittner
Tour at 13:00
Report from Hafsúlan: The wind had calmed down and the swell as well, which made the ride out onto Faxafloi very pleasant. Just 10 minutes out of the harbour, we decided to take a route we normally wouldn't, as it is unusual to see whales or dolphins this close to shore. But we knew from our previous tour, that there was a humpback whale around, which we got to see this tour as well. It was behaving very elusive, however, a behaviour we can't influence. Still most passengers got to view this humpback for at least one surface. Going further out, we saw a lot of Atlantic puffins, which everyone enjoyed. Finding our next species, a pod of at least 7 white-beaked dolphins, of which one was a re-sight called "Beethoven", proved to be quite difficult. But we did it and they were great to watch, surfacing really slowly and not changing their behaviour despite the proximity of the boat, making them easy to watch and take photos of. That was nature the way it is supposed to be.
- Sabrina Voswinkel
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: We started our morning tour with the sky overcast but with awesome conditions for whale watching. The sea seemed to be like a grey curtain which is perfect when spotting this dark animals. Today, the tour was very special, we didn´t ´t have time to settle down and enjoy the ride into Faxafloi when we had our first encounter, just five minutes away from the harbour, and it was a humpback whale, incredible! This humpback was doing what everybody should be doing during wednesday´s morning: rest after a long weekend. This individual seemed to be resting and surfacing from time to time doing what we call "milling". After a while observing this animal, we decided to sail further out to look for more cetaceans and it was quite productive day. In the way to one of our main spotting areas, we had a fast encounter with a small group of harbour porpoises, they were tiny and elusive, just in their line. Only few minutes later, we saw surfacing in the distance a minke whale, and it didn´t take long until we saw more individuals of this species. Even two of them surfaced in perfect synchrony, it was amazing! In the way back we enjoyed a smooth ride and calm waters, what else can you ask for on a wednesday morning?
-Rodrigo A. Martinez Catalan
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: Very nice to out on the bay again after many cancelled tours yesterday due to the strong winds. The wind had dropped to almost nothing but the swell was still there rocking up and down. It was just 10 minutes eaving the harbour we saw our first cetacean, a humpback whale that was rolling at the beginning but was then on a mission and became difficult to follow.We left it and went searching for more. Next was a small pod of 2-3 harbour porpoises, which were, as usually, elusive but a lot of passengers got to see them but maybe not so many got a picture. In the distance through a pair of binoculars we could see a vast amount of feeding birds. We had to go check it out and we were so glad we did. 3 minke whales feeding, 1 giving us an awesome encounter, surfaced many times just meters from our boat. We could recognise this individual as Cici, a minke seen regularly since 2015. 3 species on this tour. Great morning.
- Megan Whittaker
Birds seen on today´s tours: Atlantic puffin, common guillemot, northern fulmar, herring gull, black-backed gull, arcitc skua and arctic tern.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavík today. We hope you are able to join us on the search of these magnificent animals in their natural environment.
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