Tour at 1300
The swell seemed to calm down a little on this tour but you could still practice your surfing skills on the way out by bending your knees with the swells, a lot of fun. Again, we saw many Puffins and some Harbour Porpoises. We went straight to the area from the morning tour to spend the majority of our time but there were still many birds but no Minke Whales, what has happened. With this many birds there was bound to be whales. We thought we had seen a couple of black backs and blows in the distance but as we got closer to those areas to check, nothing. We wanted to check further offshore but again no luck. We sailed slowly back and checked areas that were productive in the past but still nothing. I got on the binoculars to look further from the boat and determined to show the passengers something, i was not giving up. Then a couple of the passengers started shouting 10 o'clock, I quickily turned and there it was a Minke Whale just chilling out, surfacing slowly and enjoying life it seemed. After a deep dive the Minke was not seen again so after a while of waiting with no luck we continued back home. A very difficult tour with not much cetacean wise so we offered Complimentary tickets so that passengers could return and have another chance at seeing the amazing marine life of Faxaflói Bay.
Tour at 0900
We sailed out into Faxaflói Bay today in beautiful sunshine, great visability but choppy seas. You could feel the swells most when heading out offshore against the wind but it was nice and smooth sailing with the sun on your face on the way back. We saw many Puffins and Harbour Porpoises as we headed offshore but it took us a while to see the larger whales, the Minkes. We got to an area were there was a lot of birds including Gannets, Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Gulliemots, Puffins and various species of Seagull. Suddenly one of the passengers started pointing and lo and behold a Minke Whale, whoo hoo. Obviously feeding as it kept changing direction and then as we were waiting for him/her to surface after a deeper dive we got a surprise when he/she surfaced just meters from our boat, whooosh! the sound of the blow (exhaled breath) so unmistakable. The boat tilted alittle as everyone rushed to that side where the whale surfaced. After a while of watching this guy we saw another surface behind, we turned the boat to have one on each side but of course they never surfaced at the same time. A great morning out at sea with two Minke Whales, many Harbour Porproises and seabirds, the sun on your face, wind in your hair and the beautiful Icelandic scenery.