Tour at 19:00
Report from Elding: After the great previous tour we sailed out again towards the south, trying to find the minke whales we spotted in the previous tour. It took us around 1 hour to spot the first cetaceans of the evening which were, indeed, a small pod of harbour porpoises popping out of the water at 50 meters away from our boat. This little ones always disappear soon, so we proceed our travel. A blow, most likely coming from a minke whale, was spotted less than 100 m away from the boat but unfortunately we never saw the animal again and again. Finally we found a second individual of this species of whales! We spotted the animal surfacing for a few times and then, as well, disappeared into the bay. The wind was picking up quite a lot and time was running out, so we just started to head back. We gave complimentary tickets to our passengers to ensure that they will try again within the next two years and, hopefully, a little bit more of wildlife will greet us on their next travel in the Faxafloi.
- Alberto Alejandro
Tour at 17:00
Report from Hafsúlan: The weather was even better than this afternoon, the sun was still shining and it felt warm out on the bay. After about 30 minutes of sailing we found the two minke whales that traveled together little further than the lighthouse Grótta. This was most likely the same pair we had seen on the 13 o´clock trip. However, this time the minkes were more elusive and we never got a good look at them. We kept on going further out on the bay and got to an area with 3-4 minke whales. They were scattered over a larger area but we got great looks at most of them. It was definitely a great evening for whale watching as we could often spot them at great distance in the smooth sea conditions.
-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: Wonderful tour! One of those that hides a surprise for the second half. During almost one hour and a half we sailed out, down south, without seeing a single cetacean. We were following the trail of a minke whale that the other whale watching vessels were spotting but, unluckily for us, the animals looked to be heading south and it took us ages to arrive to the area. But once we arrived, there were minke whales everywhere! We got to see a total of 4-5 in the area. One of them even gave us a surprise by popping up right in front of the boat, 20 meters away from us! Then we found a pair traveling together, one of them being quite an impressive big animal that made me doubt about the whale species that I was seeing. During this multiples encounters we also spotted a humpback whale far away in the distance, unfortunately too much for us to try to track the animal down. On our way back we spotted 4 more minke whales, another time 2 traveling together. So a really good minke tour for us!
- Alberto Alejandro
Tour 13:00
Report from Hafsulan: The sun is spoiling us today and when we choose to start our tour sailing closer to the land where we found shelter from the wind, it was even hot! In this perfect conditions we went to the place were another boat spotted whales. We spend there while looking around without success and when we decided to go somewhere else, then animal appeared. It was a minky whale. First surfaced in the distance, then disappeared for a moment just to surface in distance 10 meters in front of our boat! It was exciting! After next surface we realized that we are watching two minky whales. Couple of them were traveling together, one was bigger then other so we are guessing that it could be female with a juvenile. This animals were very relaxed and not elusive at all. It was easy to follow them and get great look or even heard them breathing. We spend amazing time with watching them and even if we didn´t saw anything else it was amazing tour!
- Ewa Malinowska
Tour at 10:00 (bis)
Report from Elding: It was a fantastic day today for sailing out in Faxafloi and for whale-watching. Our tour of 10 o´clock was a little bit special because we had a huge group of Spanish people on board so we enjoyed a nice sailing in the south coast of Reykjavik looking for whales, dolphins and porpoises. We spent a lot of time looking for cetaceans and when we were about giving up, a single animal appeared from nowhere: it was a minke whale. Even though it was only one, we were with this individual for a long time as it seemed that the whale weren't´t bothered by our presence. It was even surfacing really close to the boat giving us the chance to take good pictures of this elusive animal. In the way back, we enjoyed a smooth sailing and we had to be careful with the sun, it was shinning quite intense so that´s why you have to be prepare for any kind of weather in Iceland.
-Rodrigo A. Martinez Catalan
Tour at 10:00
Report from Eldey: It was a beautiful day in Reykjavik sunny and almost no wind. But we didn´t had so much luck with the cetaceans. It took us allot of time before we spotted our first sighting. We where almost back in the harbour. But than we did get to see a minke whale he was easy follow and came up a lot of times. Also the minke came very close so nice! Overall it was a nice tour because of the wheatear and than an awesome minke whale in the end.
- Alexandra Bouman
Tour at 09:00
Report from Hafsúlan: It was much smoother than yesterday but the swell was still in the bay. It was a cold morning and it definitely felt nice and cozy wearing our warm overalls. It turned out to be challenging getting good sightings of cetaceans on the tour although we were able to find some animals. Our first sighting was a pod of 3 white beaked dolphins, they were very elusive and unfortunately we lost them almost as soon as we first spotted them, Next we spotted a blow at almost 700 meters distance, but that one was a mysterious blow as we never found an animal in the area. Our last sighting was a pod of 3 harbour porpoises, they were actually our best sighting of the tour. We followed them for a few minutes before they went for a dive and were not spotted again. As these were our only sightings of the tour we gave all of our passengers return tickets so they could have a second chance with us to see the animals of Faxaflói bay,
-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir
Birds seen on today's tours include: northern gannets, Merlin, black headed gull, Arctic terns, Atlantic puffins, common guillemots, razorbills, eider duck, cormorants, greater black-backed gull and northern fulmar.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. There is little wind today and lets hope the sun will shine on us today. We are looking forward to you joining us on our search for these magnificent animals.
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