THURSDAY, 20 JUNE 2019

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | at 20:30

Report from Elding: A beautiful evening to head out into Faxa bay. It was a little windy but everyone wrapped up warm. After 40mins we found ourselves surrounded by 4-5 minke whales, feeding under and around a huge flock of birds. One of the minke whales was one of our ´celebrity minkes´individual called Háski seen frequently since 2013. Once the birds settled and the minkes scattered we continued our search and soon found a pod of 4-5 white beaked dolphins, socialising, leaping and bow-riding. Another vessel joined us and we continued our search. That was all for this tour except the beautiful midnight sun and landscape and the plentiful birdlife. A wonderful tour to end the day.

- Megan Whittaker

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | at 17:00

Report from Eldey: We started our tour in high spirits, hoping to find the cetaceans from the previous tour again. The weather was still nice, seas were rather flat and we even got sunshine for the most part. After heading in the direction of Snæfellsjökull for a while we spotted a pod of 5-7 white beaked dolphins. These animals were very relaxed, travelling slowly, but surfacing only a few times. When we lost sight of them we kept going and found a minke whale. However, it only surfaced once and disappeared. We also spotted a big flock of seabirds in the distance and decided to have a look, as this is always a sign of food, and might attract cetaceans as well. In between the birds we found another minke whale, but this individual showed up just once or twice and vanished, just like the last one. In the end we decided to give our passengers complimentary tickets for another whale watching tour with us, so they can have a better look at the cetaceans next time.

- Diana Besel

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | at 14:00

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | at 13:00

Report from Eldey: It seemed like word of a beautiful morning tour had spread, as we had many passengers join us on this trip. Winds were calmer than before and the sun shining throuh the clouds every now and again. As we had had to sail quite far to find wildlife this morning, we decided to aim straight for that direction, as to have as much time as possible to search that area once arrived. However, on our way, the blows of a minke whale stopped us and we watched it for a while. But as it was quite shy and moving very fast and unpredictably, we continued our search navigating towards Hvalfjödur. Sure enough, here we did not only spot a pod of 3 white-beaked dolphins but also a humpback whale! The dolphins were being like little siblings, annoying the humpback, which made it tail slap and swim on it's side, lifting parts of it's tail as it did. It was a spectacular view and we stayed until the very last minute to enjoy it.

- Miquel Pons

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | at 10:00

Report from Elding: A really cold wind from the North was waving us, waking up the most sleepy passengers. During the first two hours we had a few sightings in the distance, splashes and small blows but, sadly, the responsibles were gone by the time we got to the area. We kept looking without loosing the hope until we saw a big blow. We sailed to the place and we were waiting a long time. We were thinking the whale had decided to surface somewhere else, out of our sight again, when, suddenly, a beautiful humpback whale appeared just on our side. It was a really close slow surfacing that all the passengers were able to admire it. It did it a few more times, all around the boat, almost scratching its flippers with our boat and it also surprised us by splashing its tail against the water surface a few times, doing a behaviour that is called "tail lobbing". During the whole sighting, this curious humpback whale was taking a few minutes dives and, luckily, in the meanwhile, a total of 6 minke whales were appearing again and again a bit further away, all around the boat. I guess the image of this humpback whale appearing right in front of our eyes, and being surrounded by 6 minke whales, will always remain in our memory. Such an special moment!

-Elena Gutiérrez Ruiz

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | at 9:00

Report from Eldey: Since yesterday, wind and waves had calmed down and we could go whereever we pleased in the bay, not restircted by any weather conditions. So we simply sailed straight into the middle of the bay and reached an area with an immense bird activity. Seeing this we always know if there is a lot of fish around that not only the birds, but also the whales feed on! We sailed slowly through the area and saw 3 minke whales scattered in front of us alongside with a pod of 3-4 white-beaked dolphins. All were clearly hunting the fish. This became especially clear when a fourth minke whale, an individual we call Tap, was blowing bubbles, turning on it's side and, to top it all off, came up with its mouth wide open less than 10m away from us. Patience is so often rewarded in wildlife. And sailing back, clouds broke apart and we all enjoyed an extra dosis of sunshine. 

- Sabrina Voswinkel 

Birds seen today: common guillemot, atlantic puffin, northern gannet, northern fulmar, lesser black-backed gull, manx shearwater, razorbill, arctic skua, black-legged kitiwake, artic tern.