Tour at 2030
Report from Hafsulan. We started the tour at puffin Island where we had a 10 minute stop to take really nice photos with the beautiful light of the sun going down. We then headed offshore to search for cetaceans. It didn't take long before we saw the first Minke Whale, surely feeding because of the presence of skimming arctic terns. The second Minke surfaced only 5 minutes after we left our first encounter, there was definitely a few individuals in the area. We decided to go further offshore to try to find other species but without success. Anyway the scenary was stunning ! On our way back we came through the same area we spotted the Minkes, they were still there ! We enjoyed the sailing back listening to some live music, staring at the rainbow over the Reykjaness peninsula.
Tour at 1700
Report from Hafsúlan: The rain had stopped when we headed out this very nice afternoon to search for the whales. Yet again it did not take us a long time to spot the first minke whale of the tour! We saw very soon that we had at least 6 individuals in the same area. All of the minkies were little bit elusive but we could see few of them very close to the boat surfacing few times for us. We tried to head further out but always after 3 minutes we found another minke whale and the same thing happened 3 times. We were very happy to see some of the minke whales surfacing close to us and it made it all better after finding so elusive minkes. All in all a very nice afternoon.
Tour at 1400
Report from Elding II: We escaped the rain that was starting to pour down in Reykjavik and headed out to the bay. On our way out we saw a few harbour porpoises for which we did not stop. After abour 10 minutes we saw a mike whale surfacing frequently. We got quite close to it until it took a deep dive and we decided to leave it be and head a little bit further out, where we had seen a flock of birds. It turned out that those birds, mainly puffins, arctic terns and fulmars were feeding. Soon, we spotted a minke whale and soon we saw another one and from there on we did not have to move much around as we had about 5 individuals surfacing again and again. We were apparently at a big lunch party full of birds, minke whales and harbour porpoises. On our way back we stopped at Akurey, the puffin colony and there were plenty of birds all around providing the passengers with great opportunities to take beautiful photos! Great tour, calm seas and even sunshine now and again!
Tour at 1300
Report from Hafsúlan: On the beginning of our midday tour it was a little bit rainy and we expected a little bit less nicer weather than on our morning tours. But it changed very quickly and after we sailed approximatley 15 minutes out of the harbour we had beautiful sunshine which continued until the end of our tour. Very fast we found a first minke whale. First he surrounded the boat a little bit but than he swam relatively slow and for a very long time in the same direction. It was very easy for us to follow him slowly. He surfaced countless times always at the same side of the boat and it was simply wonderful to watch him. After a very long time with him we decided to leave this guy in order to look for other species in the bay. This was a very good decision because after only a few minutes of searching we found a group of white beaked dolphins. They surfaced very often and we counted 4 to 6 individuals. In the same area where we spotted the dolphins we finally also saw a group of harbour porpoises. We were very satisfied seeing three different species on this tour but as we wanted to go back to the harbour we spotted two more minke whales in front of the boat. So we stopped again, enjoyed the minke whales and finally we went back to the harbour.
Tour at 1000
Report from Skrúður: Once again a beautiful morning with plenty of Minke Whales, Harbour Porpoise and Seabirds with a moody sky in the back ground and blue clear skies above. We saw at least 5-6 Minke Whales up close with more in the distance. One of the Minke Whales was very small maybe the offspring from this past winter or from the year before. We got to see these Minkes up close and really apprieciated their size. The star of the show though was one Harbour porpoise that you could see swimming just under the waters surface about a meter from the boat people watching. You could see it rolling so that it could look up at the passangers which were looking down. Wonderful day out in the bay.
Tour at 0900
Report from Hafsúlan: We started our tour under very nice weather conditions. It was sunny, there was almost no wind and the sea was very calm. Our puffin island was absolutely great today because there were thousands of puffins all around the island. As we went out to the bay we did not have to go far and we spotted the first minke whale very quick. We stayed almost the whole time in the same area and we had for a very long time approximately 6 minke whales around us. They surfaced relatively often and one of them showed up absolutely close to the boat - only 5 meters away! At the end of our tour we could also spot some harbour porpoises surfacing several times next to our boat.
Seabirds seen on todays tours include; Gannets, Puffins, Guillemots, Arctic Terns, Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Arctic Skuas and Seagulls.