Tour 20:30
Report from Elding: What a beautiful tour in Faxafloi Bay, great sunset and the moon fronting the sun at the same time. Pink and orange colors all around in the sky. But no puffins on akurey island. The guide spotted after 35 minute of sailing out a minke whale 300 meters from the boat we got closer to it and then saw it again surfacing in another direction, not sure if it was the same individual but we followed it slowly and gently coming up to the surface between 40 and 100 meters, rostrum first sometimes. Romantic scenery all around. Then we headed back to Reykjavik with live music, and passengers got more and more in the party mood until we spotted another minke whale maybe two just in front of the capital city of Iceland! What a surprise nature gave us again! Lovely atmosphere, lovely people onboard... something we will remember with the lights of the streets of Reykjavik in front of us the great singer and musician...
Tour at 17:00
Report from Hafsúlan: Once more we decided to sail straight out into the bay and to stop at the Puffins on Akurey on our way back towards land. This time we were searching a bit longer until we spotted a flock of diving Gannets in a great distance. We sailed straight into the area and when we arrived we slowed down. And suddenly like out of the nowhere a Minke Whale surfaced just next to our boat. Wow, what a great Minke that surfaced very slow many times not more than 5 meter next to us. We could see the whole body under the surface and we could hear the loud blows. It was diving long time before surfacing but then we had great sightings. In the end of the tour it disappeared the same than it suddenly surfaced and we started our way home. But it was great to meet this Minke Whale out in the beautyful Faxaflói Bay.
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: We headed out the beautiful and calm Faxaflói and sailed straight out to our sister vessel Hafsúlan. There we soon spotted our first but not last Minke Whale of the tour. We only stayed with that one for a little while because soon we spotted another one little bit further away. While we were watching this Minke we spotted three other Minkes and two pods of White Beaked Dolphins! This was very exciting, we often spotted both the species surfacing at the same time and it was hard to pick a one animal to watch! We stayed with them as long as we could but of course there came the point we had to head back to Reykjavik. On our way back we even spotted one Minke Whale and two small pods of Harbour Porpoises. We then ended the tour by stopping by Akurey to take a look at the puffins but there were not too many of the around this afternoon. So it is safe to say that this was a very nice tour, with beautiful weather and a bay full of whales!
Tour at 13:00
Report from Hafsúlan: We left the older harbor and sailed straight into the bay were we started to search. At first we stopped at a Pod of 3 Harbor Porpoises but we did not stay long with them as we spotted 2 Minke Whales at the same time in a distance. On the way to the Minke Whales we encountered sudddenly a Pod of 4+ White Beaked Dolphins. We spended a bit of time with them before we headed on. All in all we spotted 5 to 7 Minke Whales during the tour, some of them in a distance, others very close to our boat. On our way home we stopped shortly at Akurey to watch Puffins but unfortunately there were just very few around. Even there were not a lot of Puffins to see we had a great tour in a productive bay.
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: We went first to Akurey to see the puffins and there were many of them at the surface and flying. Then we headed out and sailed for 30 minutes before spotting our first minke whale that popped up really close to the boat, that we didnt see then again coming up. But we arrived in an area where we saw at least 6-7 different individuals and there were even more further in the distance. The first minke whale was a really cool one and shared with us a very interesting feeding behaviour. First of all the guide spotted it deep in the water since the minkie was upside down and showing its white bellies then produced bubbles to trap or scare prey before plunge feeding at the surface, and coming back straight up to the surface the mouth and rostrum first up in the air. That was an amazing behaviour and it surfaced several times the same way. We were then surrounded by many minke whales in the same area. Later on, while heading back to the harbour, we spotted a pod of harbour porpoises. Very nice tour!
Tour at 09:00
Report from Hafsúlan: At first we visited the Puffin colony Akurey close to Reykjavík and it was great to see those cute birds all around the island. Once we were further out in the bay we found a Pod of White Beaked Dolphins. This Pod between 4 to 6 dolphins surfaced in different directions around us and it was a great start into a very great tour. The next sighting after this Pod of Dolphins were two Minke Whales surfacing at the same time and close to our boat. But they were not alone as there came 2 White Beaked Dolphins that joined us. The Dolphins were diving under the boat and travveling on both sides of one of the Minkes! This was a great show that we were able to join before we had to head towards land. On our way back we saw three other Minke Whales that we spotted from a distance but we could not stay with them as we had to go back to town. Great tour!!
Birds seen on today's tours: Northern Gannets, Puffins, Manx Shearwaters, Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Glaucous Gulls, Lesser Black Backed Gulls, Common Guillemots, Arctic Terns, Eider Ducks.