Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding : We started the tour under a rainy overcast sky but the sea was calm. We saw a few Puffins around Akurey on the way out and also some Black-backed seagulls, kittywakes, Arctic Terns, Fulmars, Eyder Ducks. Then we headed offshore in this grey weather perfect to spot a black back breaking the water surface. It took us around 40 minutes before we saw a group of two White-Beaked Dolphins traveling into the bay and after only 10 minutes of "survey" a Minke Whale came up 20 meters from the dolphins. At this time we started to follow the Minke for almost half an hour. It was either slow traveling or resting because it didn't change direction at all and kept the same regular ventilation rate. We had the chance to get quite close to this guy. On our way back, we enjoyed the live music when suddenly a second Minke whale surface really close to the boat. Really good trip !
Tour at 1700
Report from Hafsulan: We decided to sail to Lundey the second Puffin colonie close to Reykjavik. There we found the same situation than in Akurey, there were just a few Puffins around obviously coming and leaving the island. After that we started to sail out into the bay and it took as a while until we found a pod of Harbor Porpoises. They were slowly surfacing and we could stay a long time with them. After this nice start we had high hopes and searched in an great area of the foggy and rainy bay. Unfortunately there was not one sign of a whale out there. We decided to give all passengers a complimentary ticket to try to find the whales again.
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: We sailed out of the old harbour out to Faxaflói bay which was looking a little bit moody with dark clouds and grey sea. The luck was though with us and the ocean stayed relatively calm and it did not start to rain until on the way back. We headed out the bay and searched for a quiet a while, in the end all that looking paid of because we spotted a Minke Whale close to the boat. That was a very nice Minke that surfaced often all around the boat so everyone could get a good look at it. This turned out to be the only whale that we spotted on this tour, but we got a nice collection of seabirds coming close to the boat on this trip. The Northen Gannet being seen a lot all around the boat as well as the Artic Skuas, Artic Terns, Manx Shearwater , Atlantic Puffins, Black Guillimot and Black Backed Gulls. We finished this tour by going to Akurey the puffin colony, there we saw the puffins, both sitting on the water, sitting in front of their holes and flying back and forth to bring their young food. All in all the conditions were not the easiest one, but we were lucky seeing a nice Minke and many very nice seabirds!
Tour at 13:00
Report from Hafsulan: We stopped at first at the island Akurey and it was good to see that there were more Puffins around than on the morning tour. After that we headed out into the bay. We were searching for a very long time but we only found two pods of Harbor Porpoises each between 2 and 3 individuals. Even we passed through two areas were we knew that there we sightings in the morning, we could not find any other sign of whales or dolphins. We decided to give everyone on board a complimentary ticket in the end of the tour.
Tour at 10:00
Report from Skrúður: this turned out to be a difficult tour on our smallest boat in somewhat rough and rainy weather. We started by having a look at Lundey as we had heard from our sisterships that Akurey was virtually deserted. Sadly we found the same applying to Lundey. Then we went out and found the skyes getting darker and darker and the sea more and more uneven, yet it wasn't overly bad. There was one Minke Whale seen but only twice and many passengers did not spot it. We searched and searched but saw no more whales. However, the birdlife was rich, for instance in the shape of Manx Shearwater, Northern Gannet, Fulmar and Kittiwake. There were virtually no Puffins on the water. We decided to give complimentary tickets on this tour as our commitment to satisfaction on our tour, which is the best thing we can do when dealing with the unpredictable nature.
Tour at 9:00
Report from Elding: We went first to Akurey island, not many puffins were there, just too busy fishing out in the bay and bringing fish back to their chicks in the burrows. They also tried to avoid the attacks of the parasitic bird , the arctic skua. We went straight out in the bay and found a small pod of white beaked dolphins that we watched for a bit before they disappeared in the ocean, they seemed busy feeding as well. Then our first Minke Whale popped out in the middle of this where the dolphins were and where gannets and other birds were flying and feeding. This minkie was quite a small individual (males as well as subadults are smaller than females), but this one surfaced really close to our boat several times and once was even not ten meters away coming towards us. We saw in total 4 or 5 different individual through the tours and several times really close to the boat, even at less than ten meters, that we could see clearly the head coming out of the water as well as the 2 blow holes and the white stripe on the flippers. Realy nice tour, eventhough it was windy and a bit rainy, but the sea conditions were still good.
Tour at 09:00 Report from Hafsulan: We left the harbor this morning and stopped at first at the island Akurey. The Puffins were very illusive this morning but we think they are just out on sea catching fish. After that we headed straight out into the bay. It did not took us a long time to come into a great area. In the same spot we found at first 6 White Beaked Dolphins, than we were visited by a Pod of 4 to 5 Harbor Porpoises that were diving under the boat, so we were able to see their whole bodies under the surface. The third species on the tour was a Minke Whale that was also diving underneath our vessel! So we all had a great start into a day with three species around us!
Birds which have been seen on todays tours : Manx Shearwaters, Northern gannets, Arctic Skuas, Fulmars, Common Guillemots, Puffins, Kittiwakes, Lesser Black Backed Gulls, Eider ducks, Arctic Terns.