Tour at 20:30
Report from Eldey: The weather just got better and better as the day went on and by the time we left the harbour this evening the wind had almost died completely. I was even sweating inside my overalls at the beginning of the trip, and that never happens! On our way out to the main sighting area we were fortunate enough to have a pretty big pod of about 9 white-beaked dolphins take a short interest in us and come approach the boat. Everyone had such a great view and there were plenty of opportunities to take pictures. However, these dolphins were on a mission and clearly not very bothered about sticking around so they continued on without us and we went in search of a different species. Not too long after the dolphins, we saw a blow and a few minutes later we saw humpback whale causing it. This whale was really grumpy however and after one really cool surface right next to the boat, the Grumpy Humpy was quick to tease us by popping up in unexpected places for only moments. On our way back though, a minke whale made up for the humpback by letting us stay with it for a while and by surfacing quite close to the boat. Overall it was a splendid tour, especially with a postcard worthy sunset accompanying our return.
-Rachel Pool
Tour at 17.00
Report from Eldey: The weather was still very nice for whale watching. Sunny and almost no waves. It took a bit of time before we saw our first sighting, but than we saw a humpback whale. We spotted him underneath a big flock of birds. While we were watching him 4-5 harbour proposes came up next to boat they were very cute to look at. Also one minke whale showed himself really quickly. The humpback was still in the area and we got to see him a few more times. What a nice tour!
- Alexandra Bouman
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsúlan: The weather was still amazing when we left the harbour this afternoon. The sun was shining and even though the wind was quite strong, it was mostly coming from behind us so we were still quite warm. Not too far out from Grotta, we had our first encounter with a pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins. They seemed to be travelling but took some time out of their busy schedule to investigate the boat by swimming underneath us a few times and even bow-riding! As the dolphins moved on, we spied a blow in the distance. It was a humpback whale! As soon as we got close the whale started peduncle throwing and then tail-slapping followed by a spectacular breach! It was amazing. The rest of the encounter was much more relaxed, but still amazing as the whale approached the boat quite closely. Finally on our way back we decided to swing past a huge flock of birds and found that they were amassed around a pretty big minke whale. As it was feeding, this minke surfaced quite a few times and fortunately for us, it surfaced quite close to the boat. What a marvellous day!
-Rachel Pool
Tour at 13.00
Report from Eldey: The weather was very nice! The sun was shining and on the way out we had the wind in the back. The first sighing on the tour was a minke whale but he was very elusive and difficult to follow. So we continued and found a humpback whale. As we were watching him 3-4 white-beaked dolphins they were playing with the whale. The whale rolled over to the side a few times this way we got to see this side fins, so cool. After to dolphins left we saw the humpback a few more times. On the way back 4-5 more dolphins came up around the boat the they were traveling pretty fast. It was a really nice tour.
- Alexandra Bouman
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsulan: On this tour we headed out under a blue sky with the warm sun in our back. After about an hour of sailing we reached an area where we saw a few flocks of hundreds of seabirds feeding. When we were thinking about which one to approach first, the decision was made by someone else - a pair of minke whales. These two showed a behaviour rarely seen here in Faxafloi: First of all, they swam together, which is rarely seen for these usually solitary whales. Secondly, they swam very fast and showed a big part of their beautiful bodies when surfacing, almost like porpoises and dolphins do (a behaviour called porpoising). As they were so fast, it was impossible to keep up with them even when we went full speed. Crazy minkes!! Later on, we approached an area, where a humpback whale was seen earlier. We saw the blow a few times from the distance and the animal itself once about 30m away from our vessel. Unfortunately, this humpback was very elusive, so that we decided to look for something else after we waited for quite a while. So, we approached one of the huge flocks of seabirds and spotted another minke whale feeding right underneath them. We stayed with this whale and watched it feeding underneath the birds before we had to go back home. All together, a great whale watching day under the Icelandic summer sun.
- Nicole Koestner
Tour at 9:00
Report from Eldey: The start of our tour felt nothing like being in Iceland. It was too warm to be wearing one of our overalls and a few applied sunscreen. With the water surface flat and only a little cloud cover, we could see far into the distance to spot for wildlife. Our first encounter was only 25 minutes out of the harbour, near the lighthouse Grotta. It was a resting humpback whale, meaning it stayed close to the surface but only came up for breaths every 10 minutes. We did get to see it's fluke twice, yet waiting so long inbetween breaths was too long for us so we moved on. Further out, we had an encounter with 2 minke whales, both traveling into opposite directions which made them difficult to follow. Near a large flock of birds we spotted another minke whale traveling further out to the bay quickly. Whilst all our encounters were short, this was mainly due to the animals traveling rather than feeding and of course we don't want to influence them in their behaviour but experience nature as it is.
- Sabrina Voswinkel
Birds seen on today's tours: Kittiwake, Herring Gull, Black-backed Gull, Atlantic Puffin, Northern Fulmar, Common Guillemot, Arctic Skua and Northern Gannet, Manx Shearwater
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the old harbour in Reykjavik today. We hope that you can join us to see some whales !
