Tour status: RUNNING
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: The condiions had not changed much and the visibility was still good for spotting animals. The first sighting was a minke whale, it was easy to follow it so we managed to get fantastic looks at it. Not far another minke whale surfaced, that one was only spotted a few times but luckily for us the third minke whale popped up close by. This one was easy to follow and we got even better look at it than the first one! After a while with the minkes we decided to head further out to search for other species. Soon we found a pod of 5 white beaked dolphins. One of them was a small calf that traveled right next to its mother. They often approached the boat, they came right next to us and even swam under the boat a few times! We stayed with this pod until we ran out time and started heading back to harbour, after a great day out at sea.
- Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: The wind picked up a bit as we left the harbour this afternoon. The sky was overcast but the visibility was still good. The wildlife was a bit challenging today. We spotted a minke whale in the distance, but by the time we approached the area where it was, it had already moved on. We continued moving along and found another minke whale! This one was also elusive and after three surfaces, it went for a deeper dive and we lost sight of it. We then reached an area where we found a a pod of at least 5 white-beaked dolphins! The dolphins moved closer to us, so we were able to see a few of them surface right by the boat. The encounter was short but it was still a nice opportunity to see the dolphins. We then made our way back to the harbour, enjoying the beautiful landscape around the bay of Faxafloi.
- Anne Moullier
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: Wind had dropped since the morning tour and was a nice comfortable ride. We had a very successful tour with two species; minke whales and white-beaked dolphins. A passenger spotted the first minke whale with his eagle eyes and soon after two more were spotted in the same area soon after. By waiting patiently we saw the minke whales a few more times before leaving the area and finding a pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins. They were very easy to follow, just needed to watch the arctic terns above them and soon had them traveling under our boat and around the boat for a very nice interaction. Another vessel came over and they soon vanished. We got the hint and left them alone. Another minke whale was spotted and we were about to see close and a couple of times. Time to go home and just 30 minutes away from the harbour another pod of 3 white-beaked dolphins were encountered, after a brief sighting we ended our tour on a high note. Great day.
- Megan Whittaker
Tour from 10:00
Report from Elding: We set sail on high spirits as we had been very successful locating cetaceans in the last days and the weather was still on our side. We sailed out for a while as we located a pod of white-beaked dolphins, probably 10 animals coming in for some really nice closeups. It was so nice observing those animals, and being observed by them, as they kept on moving between out and another whale watching boat. Such curious animals, they came even back to us after shortly leaving with the other boat. After enjoying their presence we decided to move further out to find some more cetaceans as we saw big endless splashed further away. Another pod of dolphins enjoying themselves, probably another 6-10 individuals. But still we wanted to find something else and went on with our tour. Slowly we came to the point where we had to turn around as all of a sudden a minke whale surfaced just 20m next to our boat. Unfortunately we could not located it anymore even we waited for quite some time. Anyways, it was a great tour seeing the dolphins so close and in their natural environment! Happy world ocean day everyone!
- Sarah Kompatscher
Tour at 9:00
Report from Eldey: We were sailing along favorable winds as we left Reykjavik. It was quite enjoyable to navigate over a quiet swell and the weather was inviting to stay outside! The first sighting was a minke whale that we were able to track for a while and for a moment it was possible to observe it quite close to our vessel. Not to long after we saw a group of white-beaked dolphins (around 4 or 5 individuals) and enjoyed their presence for some time. When we first approached them they were swimming rapidly and crossing in different directions so they were most likely foraging, as it seems to be a lot of fish in the area at the time. Everyone was able to see the dolphins and register this moment. Along the tour a few marine bird species were also observed such as puffins,fulmars, artic terns and black backed sea gulls.
- Ines Cunha
Bird species seen on today's tours include: Atlantic puffin, northern fulmar, black guillemot, razorbill, common guillimot, manx shearwater, arctic tern, arctic skua, black legged kittiwake, lesser black backed gull, great black backed gull, herring gull & glaucous gull.
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. Sea conditions are good and lets hope that the sun will shine on us. Hope you are able to join us on our search for these magnificent animals in their natural environment.
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