Tour at 19:00
Report from Elding: The wind felt bitterly cold as we left the harbour, throwing most of my words back in my face as we headed for Akranes. Even so, we were luckier than this afternoon with a minke whale appearing right in front of the boat only 25 minutes into our trip. This minke was quite good, it surfaced quite a few times all within 500 metres of the boat before going for a short dive. When it reappeared it was less than 100 metres from the boat! It soon disappeared however and we spent most of the rest of the trip chasing after multiple blows from other minkes that would vanish shortly before we even got to see them. Just before we turned around to go home, we had another kind minke pop up right in front of us, maybe it was even the same one throwing us a bone. What a great start and end to the whale-watching!
-Rachel Pool
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: This afternoon tour was a tour with a very slow start and a stunning ending. Although the sea and weather conditions were great and everyone enjoyed the time on the vessel, there was not so much wildlife to see on this tour. After about half an hour we spotted our first minke whale relatively close to the land. It surfaced two times, only about 50m away from our boat. Unfortunately, we were not able to spot it again although we waited for quite a while and checked out the area around. After about another hour of sailing out in the bay, we spotted a sequence of three strong blows. When we approached the area, another minke whale surfaced. But this individual was also very elusive: After a great surface right on the side of our vessel it was not seen again. After our long search we were running out of time and turned around to sail back to the harbour. About twenty minutes away from Reykjavik, in the same area as our first sighting, we again spotted a minke once, before it went for a longer dive. But this time there was a second one just a few minutes later which surfaced 4 times in only about 20m to our vessel allowing everyone to have a good look at it. When following this individual with our eyes swimming towards the back of the boat, something else caught our attention in the distance - massive splashes!! And then we saw a minke whale jumping out of the water twice! What a great surprise, especially as this is a very rarely seen behaviour for minke whales. A fantastic ending of a relaxed tour under the Icelandic summer sun.
-Nicole Koestner
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsúlan: The wind wasn´t too cold as we left the harbour this afternoon - some brave souls spent the entire trip without overalls! Unfprtunately, despite appearing quite calm while we were sheltered behind Esja, the wind picked up as we went further out into the bay and the sea soon became dotted with white-caps. After hearing some reports of some dolphins in the area, we headed over to some of the other boats. However the dolphins were feeling elusive so we circled the area until they reappeared. While short, our encounter with the 4 white-beaked dolphins was definitely sweet - they were breaching all over the place and came very close to the boat. As this was our only encounter of the trip we handed out complimentary tickets.
-Rachel Pool
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: it was a very nice afternoon, the sun was shining and it was dry. It took us a bit of time before spotting our first cetaceans. But we found a pod of 6-7 white-beaked dolphins. They where not really travailing somewhere so they where easy to follow. They stayed with of a bit so we all could have a good look at them, so nice. On the way back we all enjoyed the sun.
- Alexandra Bouman
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsúlan: While the northerly wind was quite chilly, it was still a beautiful day to be outside. We have been spoiled with sunshine this past week and it looks like it's continuing. It took us around one hour to get into more active waters today, but during this first hour everyone could enjoy the beautiful landscape and learn some things about the bay and the peninsulas surrounding it. Our first encounter was with a minke whale that was being very difficult and elusive at first. However, as I told our passengers, patience is a virtue, and that proved right today. In the end we got to see a total of 3 minke whales, of which two came very close to the boat, once even less than 10m away! A mink-tastic tour in my opinion.
- Sabrina Voswinkel
Tour at 9:00
Report from Eldey: We started our morning with a lot of sunlight and a fresh Icelandic breeze. After only half an hour we spotted a blow. However, although we turned around straight away this animal was not in the mood to show itself. So we continued our ride. After about 50 min we spotted a small group of 4-5 harbour porpoises. As these animals are usually very shy and not so often seen staying with the boats, we were quite happy to see them surfacing a couple of times right in front of our vessel. After this encounter we covered a big area before we spotted our next cetacean. This time we saw a minke whale which surfaced close to us twice before heading away and finally disappearing. On our way back to Reykjavik, we were surprised by another minke whale popping up just about 20 minutes before being back in the harbour. Our captain made sure that we had a few minutes with this minke which was feeding, before we returned to the port. What a great finish!
- Nicole Koestner
Birds seen on today's tours: Northern Gannet, Atlantic Puffin, Northern Fulmar, Common Guillemot, Manx Shearwater, Arctic Tern, Black-backed Gull and Kittiwake.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. There is little wind and the sea conditions are good. Hope you are able to join us on our search of these magnificent animals!
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