Tour at 19:00
Report from Hafsulan: Our last tour of the day is always the most special tour, not only because of the nice sunset and the tranquillity that we can enjoy in Faxafloi, but also because our encounters tend to be more personal and close and that’s how it was in the tour of today. We started sailing out of the old harbour and it didn’t take too long until we were able to spot the first cetacean of the day, it was a minke whale. It was surfacing few times close to the boat and it seemed to be a juvenile. After a while, we decided to continue scanning the bay and we found another minke whale again surfacing close to us giving us good moments. We tried to find more species and we were rewarded with a huge encounter, at least two pods of white-beaked dolphins were in our way. The water seemed to be boiling in dolphins this evening. They were jumping out of the water, surfacing close to us and speeding us giving us a deep sense of dolphin’s social structure and bonds. When the sun set off, we came back to Reykjavik while listening Bjarni´s music, to round up an incredible tour.
-Rodrigo A. Martinez Catalan
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: Once again, conditions were really good today with calm seas and a clear sky. As we were travelling out, we spotted a minke whale fairly early into the trip. We got relatively close to it, however it was being pretty elusive and after a few surfaces, it would go for longer dives and pop up fairly far away from its last location. After observing it for a while, we decided to sail on and perhaps find another individual that was a little more calm. The next minke we found was almost too calm, as this one seemed to be resting and not really moving at all, except that it arched its back and went for a deep dive as soon as we got closer... We spotted another minke from a further distance, but also not getting too close, so minkes were not our most favorite for this trip :) When we were sailing further through our main sighting area we spotted some splashes from a distance and as we got closer we could identify these splashes to be leaping white-beaked dolphins. This was really awesome and as we got closer these dolphins even swam towards us and swam around us for quite some time. They were even bow riding for a short time and leaping out of the water close to the boat. After a while of staying with them, we had to return to harbor and finished the trip on a nice note.
- Friedrich Rittner
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsulan: What a wonderful weather that we have enjoyed today, it was the perfect combination for a whale watching tour without wind or waves and excellent visibility. Moreover, previous tours had been successful so we had all the hopes put in this tour and it was proved to be right! Just few moments after leaving the harbour we spotted a group of tiny and shy harbour porpoises, they were at least 4 to 6 and they were surfacing in perfect synchrony giving us nice pictures. But we wanted more, so we sailed further out trying to spot more species and we did. Just few minutes later we saw a gentle minke whale surfacing quietly, but it wasn´t the only minke whale that we have seen today we had many more! In total, 5 minke whales appeared during our afternoon tour and it was species one of our encounters because we could see a mother and her calf, which we named "Texas" after our numerous passengers coming from there. In our way back we were more lucky and we took a close look at one harbour seal, making this tour a great one.
-Rodrigo A. Martinez Catalan
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: We continued this wonderful day with a lot of action going on out there. Calm seas, calm winds, and a marvelous sun gliding on the surface of Faxafloi. It took us less than 20 minutes to find the first cetacean, a minke whale, surfacing for a few times in a row and milling around. We stood with the animal for just a few minutes because there were just too many boats around the same animal. So we decided to give it a break and keep going. On our way we saw around 3-4 harbour porpoises, shy creatures that soon disappeared of our sight. After a small while there came the white beaked dolphins, a big pod of 6-8 individuals. Quite elusive, though, maybe due to the presence of a few young individuals within the group. After that the minke whales appeared one after the other one, and we were able to count around 6 individuals in total. And again, we enjoyed a few of these animals fairly close, less than 100 m away from the boat! To end this amazing tour we actually got to see another pod of 8-10 white beaked dolphins and, this time, they were not moody at all! Leaping now and then, feeding sometimes, and finally checking who was on board Eldey this afternoon. An incredible experience!
- Alberto Alejandro
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsulan: The tour began with a sighing of 4-5 harbour porpoises after only 25 minutes of sailing. The sea was so flat that we could spot these small animals from a few hundred meters distance, this was a great spotting practice for the larger animals we searched for further out on the bay. Soon after we left the porpoises we spotted a minke whale, we got great sightings of the whale. We were still close to land so we often had the opportunity to get a photo of the minke with Reykjavik in the background! Further out on the bay we found a pod of at least 10 white beaked dolphins traveling, they swam fast and just right behind a minke whale. The minke traveled in an incredible speed and always kept the same direction, every time it surfaced it formed a huge splash! This was defiantly interesting behavior that we don't see often. Another pod of 6-7 dolphins were feeding underneath a huge flock of northern gannets about 500 meters away. We got close to these animals feeding, and it must have been the best sighing of the tour! the birds and the dolphins were so active feeding and we turned the engines off to listen to the animals. On the way back we saw our theirs minke whale and three other pods of dolphins, we must have seen at least 30 dolphins on this incredible tour.
Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: Sailing out, we had wonderful conditions with a very calm sea as well as a clear sky and sunshine. After only about half an hour we spotted our first cetacean an made our way to it. As we got closer, this individual turned out to be a minke whale which was surfacing calmly and also got fairly close to the boat. We watched it surface up to five times before going for short deep dives. After maybe three surface sequences, we spotted a second minke whale just within our vicinity, which was really cool! Some other whale watching boats maybe a kilometer away were also observing a minke whale and since the sea was so calm we could even get a glimpse of this third minke as well! After staying with these whales for about half an hour, we decided to continue our tour and sail further through our sighting area. It didn't take us too long until we spotted some white-beaked dolphins leaping out of the water. As we got closer, this pod of five individuals were swimming around us as well as underneath the boat from time to time. For a short period of time they were even bow riding, which was really cool, especially for the passengers standing in the very front of the boat. We also stayed with these dolphins for quite a while, so after another half hour, we decided to slowly make our way back to Reykjavik. On the way back we even spotted yet another two separate minke whales from a distance, but had to continue our sail back home.
- Friedrich Rittner
Birds seen today: Atlantic puffin, Northern Fulmar, Northern Gannet, Lesser black-backed gull, Kittiwake
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik on a beautiful and calm day. There is almost no wind this morning and the sun is shining. Hope you will be able to join us today.
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