Tour at 17:00
Report from Hafsúlan: We left Reykjavík harbour and the sea was a lot calmer than earlier today. We headed out to sea with the sun shining on mount Esja and a fair share of gulls joined us on our way out. We arrived at an area that seemed to be full of fish as the birds seemed to enjoy themselves very much diving and fishing. We saw puffins, manx shearwaters, fulmars, kittiwakes, gannets, and many more birds along the way. We decided to keep the boat still and enjoy the view that was a beautiful sun peeking out from behind some clouds. Before we knew it our first Minke Whale appeared right in front of the boat. This beautiful creature let out a large blow before disappearing into the abyss. We continued out to sea and spotted a pod of dolphins off in the distance jumping and enjoying themselves very much. On our way out to see them we happened upon another minke whale and this time got to see it surface several times. We saw about two more minkes the rest of the evening and one was very close the boat showing off to our passangers. On our way back to the harbour we got a glimpse of two White-Beaked Dolphins that seemed to be traveling along the side of us and jumping in joy. We arrived at akurey (puffin island) where we saw puffins, eider ducks, brent geese, cormorants and even some artic terns. It was a very lovely tour with some spectacular and dramtic views.
-Taylor Theodór
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: We decided to sail directly out into the bay, stopping at the Puffin Island on the way back to Reykjavík. It was a little bit windy but we had the wind in the back so it was very calm on the boat. The other whale watching boats let us know that they spotted some Minke Whales so we slowly approached them and saw soon the first blow appearing in a distance. There were many blows around us but the whales were a bit elusive so we had to be rather patient but patience sometimes pays off and in the end of the tour we had a Minke surfacing just next to the boat a couple of times so everybody could get a good look at it. We stopped at Akurey yhe Puffin Island on the way back and had a wonderful tour ending with a lot of Puffins flying around us, coming very close to our boat.
-Lisa Hofmann
Tour at 13:00
Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out from Reykjavik and the sailing was nice however the wind had picked up a bit. We sailed through many flocks of both artic terns and puffuns. The birds are quite fun to watch as they dive into the water and sore through the sky. We headed out further and soon arrived to our special spot ( the area where we have been seeing whales lately). It wasn't long until we spotted our first Minke Whale who's blow we could see very close to the boat. This lovely ceature showed itself a couple times before diving into the deep blue. A few minutes later we spotted some more blows from afar and made our way towards them. Sure enough a mother minke whale and her calf appeared right near the boat. We spent the rest of the trip watching what seemed to be at least 4 individuals. One individual was spotted coming towards our boat and continued to show us its "geyser" like blow. It came towards us and was really beautiful to see it approaching. We headed back towards Reykjavik traversing a roller coaster of waves and stopped at Lundey "Puffin Island" to see lots of puffins in their natural habitat. Overall the trip was full of delights despite what seemed to be relatively shy whales.
-Taylor Theodór
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: When we headed out this morning, we decided to stop first at Akurey the Puffin Island, where we saw many puffins flying around and sitting on the water surface. After a while we sailed further out into Faxa Bay to see if we could spot some animals. We heared from our sister vessel Hafsúlan that they had spotted some Minke Whales so we sailed in the same direction. After maybe 30 minutes we saw our first Minke Whale surfacing in a bit of a distance. We saw quite a few blows in the distance but they were rather elusive. We stayed quite a while in the same area and were able to see the mother and her calf again, we already spotted yesterday. That was really nice to see. We said goodby to the Minke and had to head back to Reykjavík. On the way back we saw a spactacular air battle between an Arctic Skua and some Arctic Terns.
-Lisa Hofmann
Tour at 09:00
Report from Hafsúlan: When we sailed out this morning, we stopped by at Akurey, one of the puffin islands in front of Reykjavik before heading out further into faxa bay. Many puffins were sitting on the water around the island and we thoroughly enjoyed to see the "penguins of the north". The wind was quite strong this morning, but the sea surface was "relatively" calm considering the windy conditions. After about 20 minutes of sailing, we spotted a couple of White-beaked Dolphins, which, however, behaved quite elusive so we decided to continue our journey. A short moment later, we spotted a Minke Whale surfacing about 100 meters from our vessel. We enjoyed watching it a couple of times before it vanished in the depths of faxa bay and we again continued our search. We spotted two more Minke Whales, one surfacing just about 50 meters from the boat, but we lost sight when it went for a deeper dive. In the end, we had a very nice tour with Minkes, some elusive dolphins and a variety of sea birds plus very good spotters among this morning's brave sailors on Hafsúlan. Takk fyrir!
- Hendrik
Birds seen on todays' tours: Puffin, Artic Tern, Fulmar, Cormorant, Common Gulliemot, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Arctic Skua, Manx Shearwater, Northern Gannet, Brent Geese, Kittiwake.