SATURDAY, 30 JUNE 2018

Status: RUNNING

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: It seems that the weather gods had a bit of mercy on this tour. There was no rain and we also managed to have a mesmerizing view at the "almost midnight sun". Of course there had to be a trade-off, as we had a bit of a choppy sea state. Nothing our good captain and brave passengers couldn't manage. We had quite a few minke whales around as well! :) They were a challenge to track, but at the end we had quite a nice little tour with a variety of experience.

-Lucas Heinrich

Tour at 17:00

Report Eldey: Wind speed was constant like on previous tours this afternoon but now we finally got to see a bit of sunshine. We were leaving Reykjavik in the rain but we came back under the sun. Our way out was different than usually as we sail from other side of Engey and taking look at Videy island. There was a lot of birds so it was worthy to check and we got to see many puffins. We saw multiple flocks of birds but looking for cetaceans was more challenging. Good that we had amazing guest with us who helped me a lot. It was them who spotted our first minke whale. It was a totally surprise as whale surfaced out of nowhere right next to our boat. We got to see it two more times before it disappeared. Second minke whale was also spotted by our passengers, same as pod of 6 white-beaked dolphins. Dolphins were resting, moving slowly in very thigh formation. We got to see them very close but after a good moment together they also vanished. Under big flock of birds we saw minke whale nr 3 but this individual was also busy with feeding, not easy to follow. As a dot to end this tour a small single harbour porpoise swam by our side on the way back home. 

- Ewa Malinowska

Tour at 14:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Out of the harbour we headed straight in direction of hvalfjörður, the whale fjord, to find Charlie, the humpback, again after having had the pleasure of meeting her at the morning tour. And there she was, so we spent a while watching her moving a lot, interestingly passed by very close to the cliffs, to afterwards breath heavily at one point for a few times. We left her again in peace, went further out until the captain decided to go back to the shore where there seemed to be much more life this day. So we met our favourite humpback whale again and had yet another chance to observe.

- Valentin Witek

Tour 13:00 

Report from Eldey:  The wind had picked up a little bit since the morning tour but the weather was good. Our first sighting came early on the tour as we spotted a big blow in front of the boat. It was the humpback whale, Charlie once again! He was being shy but showed us his fluke a few times so we got good pictures. On our way further out we saw a pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins and a minke whale in the distance. All of the sudden as we were sailing a harbour porpoise came close to the boat so we got an amazing look at it in the water.  We had a good sailing back to the harbour and even though we got rained on in he end it was a success.

-Kolbrún Þóra Sverrisdóttir

Tour at 10:00

Report from Hafsulan: Dolphinitely the morning couldn´t start better, a pod of white-beaked dolphins were hanging around the lighthouse of Grotta, very close to the harbour. Around 20-25 of  them were playing tricks, leaping, speeding up and amusing us. Not long after this encounter we had the second one, in this occasion we had a whale of a time because we met a humpback whale. It wasn´t on porpoise but we met an old friend, she was Charlie one of our most playful whales. After a whale, we carried on with our trip having nice views from the bay. In our way back, we met again our old friends the humpie and the beautiful dolphins. Nice way to celebrate whale´s day.

-Rodrigo A. Martinez Catalan

Tour at 9:00
Report from Eldey: In the morning weather was much like yesterday - with perfectly flat sea and sky covered with clouds.For our big surprise we didn't have to sail more than 15min to have first amazing sighting. From distance we saw some splashes where around 6 dolphins were jumping. They were of course white-beaked dolphins, big pod of more than 20 individuals. Dolphins were not sticking close one to another but were keeping distance. They were also keeping distance from us, what we respected but before went further they repeated jumping performance not further then 20 m away. After dolphins we started looking for whales and we found them! We had amazing time with humpback whale (Charlie) and a minke whale in same time! Humpback was slapping its tail a little and when it went for a dive then a minke whale surfaced just in front of us. But it wasn't all as a small pod of white-beaked dolphins also came and we had one whale on the left, another in front and dolphins on the right. We were surrounded!

- Ewa Malinowska

Bird species seen today include: atlantic puffin, arctic tern, common guillemot, black-legged kittiwake, arctic skua, lesser black-backed gull, northern fulmar, northern gannet

We are sailing out today from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik. There is little to no wind and sea conditions are good. We will have some rain but we have inside and outside area on all of our boats and also provide warm overalls for you on the boats. Hope you will be able to join us today on our search for these magnificent animals in their natural environment.