Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: We sailed out in again perfect conditions (actually ever better!). By the time we reached the first minke whale we were only sailing for 25 minutes. This individual, a pretty young and small one, was rather elusive and we soon understood we had to give it its space. After that we saw a second minke whale, and this time we got to see the animal up close! The sea was so calm that it was impossible not to spot every single animal that was outside today, so once we had enough of this second whale we went to a small pod of 4-5 white beaked dolphins. This amazing animals were surfacing underneath the boat, and we got to see them also playing in our bow. Then we switched again for a minky, the third one, and finally a second pod of 4 white beaked dolphins. We had a enjoyable time this tour, you don't get this amazing weather so often. And on our way back home we also spotted 2-3 harbour porpoises popping out of the water now and then. What else could we ask!?
- Alberto Alejandro
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsulan: The afternoon tour was extremely promising because we had what we call sea "mirror" state" which means no wind, overcast skies and perfect visibility, great conditions for whale watching. We were sailing out in Faxafloi and it didn´t take that much until we were able to spot the first species of the day: a minke whale. We got nice pictures from this individual but as soon as we were charmed by its magnificent, we saw another species in the distance, it was the white-beaked dolphin and there were few of them at least 10 individuals that split in two different pods and between them we identified one of them: it was "Connor", an usual visitor in our waters. But the afternoon was full of surprises, as long as we stay a lot of time with this pod, we spotted several minke whales in the distance, they were everywhere today! We had a moment that we were literally surrounded by them, making that moment incredible. In the way back, we enjoyed the sailing experience and more minkes crossed our way.
-Rodrigo A, Martinez Catalan
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: Sailing out, we had really good sea conditions with minimum swell. There was almost no wind and the sky was overcast, which often helps us spot animals as it allows for more contrast between the animal and the (mostly grey) environment. As we were getting close to our main sighting area, we found some white-beaked dolphins, which were swimming around close to one of the other whale watching boats. There were quite a lot of them and at one point we estimated this pod to be made up of around 12 individuals!!. They were fairly relaxed surfacing frequently, but not exerting too much energy. As they were very calm, we could stay with them for a long time. After about half an hour, we decided to move on and look for other animals in the bay. As we were looking for other species, we still spotted some different pods of white-beaked dolphins, but couldn't find anything else for quite some time. Luckily after about 45 minutes, we spotted a minke whale a little in the distance. As we got closer to the animal, it surfaced fairly close to us which was really cool. We saw this minke come up for around three surface sequences, during which it came within 50 meters from the boat. This was really awesome, as we got a pretty good look at the animal. Unfortunately, we were running out of time and had to turn around after staying with the animal for around 20 minutes. On our way back we even saw the big pod of dolphins again and stayed with them for maybe 5 more minutes but shortly after, continued our way back to the harbour.
- Friedrich Rittner
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsúlan: The sea conditions were flawless, the sea was so flat we could spot animals from few kilometers away! The tour was filled with sightings and we never had a long period with no animals around. The tour started with 3 harbor porpoises, we only stopped briefly with them. A larger animal was spotted a few hundred meters from the porpoises, that was a minke whale! When we came closer to it we saw there were actually 3 minke whales in that area. After a nice time with these minke whales we decided to go further out. Now we found another pod of 4-5 harbor porpoises, while we watched them surface next to us a minke whale popped up only 30 meters from the boat! We could both hear and smell the breath of the whale it was so close. Further out on the bay we found three pods of white beaked dolphins, scattered around the bay, there must have been at least 20 dolphins in total. We got great looks at them, especially as many of them jumped close to the boat. On the way back we traveled past 2 minke whales and another pod of 3 harbour porpoises. The bay is filled with life today!
-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir
Tour at 9:00
Report from Eldey: We headed out in the bay with an incredible weather. Just between 0-2 m/s of wind speed, overcast (which, by the way, helps a lot in the spotting task!) and no swell at all. It took less than 20 minutes the find the first minke whale of the day! A really small individual swimming in front of the lighthouse of Grotta. The animal was maintaining a high speed, though, so we soon gave up to look for more cetaceans. 10 minutes later a pod of white beaked dolphins appeared. It was a large group, around 10 individuals, and it looked as if they were resting and sleeping judging by the slow motion and the elusiveness. We gave this big guys their space and we found two more minke whales on our way and a second pod of dolphins (6 individuals, although more dolphins were spotted around us and in total more than 15 dolphins were swimming in the surroundings). What a promising starting of the day!
- Alberto Alejandro
Birds seen on today's tours include: northern gannets, black headed gull, Atlantic puffins, common guillemot, eider duck, lesser black-backed gull, greater black-backed gull, cormorant, and northern fulmar.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjvik today. There is little to no wind but fully cloudy. Hope you will be able to join us today on our search of these magnificent animals in their natural environment.
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