THURSDAY, 18 JULY 2019

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  20:30

Report from Eldey:  As our passengers were entering our whale watching center they were all panting fans over sighs of exasperation to the hotness in the air. This was a sight you would believe unlikely in a country such as Iceland. But in fact this was a proper day of summer! A part from a very comfortable ride with great views and the most fantastic sunset, our passengers were also able to enjoy 1 of our minke whales! The animal was being a bit illusive as it was traveling, but we manage to keep track of it for a while. On our way back we spiced it up a bit by playing some really good music.

-Inês Cunha

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  17:00

Report from Eldey: Another beautiful tour, with lots of sunshine and a bit of wind (especially on the way back to the harbour). It took us an hour to get to the area where we had sightings earlier this day and where we got lucky once more. We got all very excited, when we saw a minke whale jumping repeatedly. Unfortunately the animal stopped as we tried to get closer to it. Just for us to encounter our first of 2 minke whales much closer to the boat. The animals were both showing feeding behaviour and made it easier for us to take pictures of them by surfacing twice before going for longer dives. We also noticed 2 blows further in the distance and another whale watching boat had at least 2 minke whales as well in close proximity. All the way back to the harbour we were able to enjoy more sunshine as well as lots of bird wildlife throughout the whole tour.

-Christina Winkler

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  14:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out with high spirits and the sun shining once again . There was considerable movement from the swell and quite a lot of wind from the Northeast. All of this was no match for a heart that aches to see whales. It was quite fortunate that we did in fact see whales on this tour. Approximately we saw 4 minke whales in the area, but there were one or two that really got the reactions from the people when it/they swam super close to our hull. I'm talking about 10 or less meters away from us. It's moments like these that make the line blurry between whale watching and people watching.

-Lucas Heinrich

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  13:00

Report from Eldey: We went on our afternoon trip with the same perfect weather than this morning. We sailed on those beautiful icelandic waters, looking at the birds and scanning the surface searching the signs of the presence of whales or dolphins. We first stopped the boat because we saw a blow. But it was a shy whale that didn´t want to show up. Further, there was a big flock of birds. We went there and found our first minke whale of the day. We saw this cetacean during a nice moment while the animal was feeding.This sighting was followed by 4 others, all minke whales feeding in those rich waters. We could enjoy a sunbath during the way back, admiring the landscape around us.

-Miquel Pons

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  10:00

Report from Hafsulan: Amazing how we got out to Faxafloi Bay, sun was shinning and a lot of northern fulmars were chasing our boat. We went to our usual area trying to find the animals and after half an hour sailing we spotted our first minke whale, after a couple of minutes in the distance big splashes showed up, so when the minke whale went for a deeper dive we decided to have a look and we found a pod of 5 white beaked dolphins. So everything was running smothly but suddenly a lot of birds started gathering in front of us and 4 minke whales popped up to the surface, our passenger took great pictures and good memories, so when we headed back to the harbour everyone had a big smile on their faces.

- Jose Manuel Marco

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  09:00

Report from Eldey: With lots of sunshine we started off our day and also our tour into Faxafloi Bay. Even though the wind was picking up a little as soon as we left the harbour, the weather was simply fantastic. It took us about 1 hour to get into an area where we saw more bird activity and had our first whale sighting. We had a total of 4-5 minke whales during this tour, with the first animal being very elusive and only surfacing once before continuing to stay underwater for a few minutes, which made it difficult to observe the animal. We decided to move on and were very lucky to find another minke whale. Following our code of conduct, we never approach the animals too close, but this animal was confortable enough to surface right next to our boat, slowly moving, three times in a row, which cause a lot of 'Uuuuhs' and 'Aaaaahs' on board. This animal definitely made our day. Two more indifiduals were spotted after, but travelling very fast away from the boat and we had one more surfacing right infront of the boat on our way back, a total surprise to everyone who was still outside with me.

-Christina Winkler

Bird species identified today: atlantic puffin, northern fulmar, northern gannet, lesser black-backed gull, great skua, manx shearwater, common guillemot, arctic tern, black-legged kittiwake, eider duck, arctic skua.