We set off and the sky was full of clouds so we headed over to Videy to look at the Imagine Peace Tower. After this point was when the northern lights started to become active. They kept appearing bright green in between gaps of cloud. As well as behind clouds too. We could see them fairly constantly for a lot of the tour at varying brightness levels.
Sun is up, freezing cold, that's how we already know, winter's here! Some 10 minutes into the tour we found a pod of 7 to 8 white-beaked dolphins that started to jump out of the water in ecstasy! We kept on following these amazing cetaceans as they came very close to the boat, jumped around again with the sunrise in the horizon and we could even see a calf amongst them!
From the start until the end we could see green northern lights above Esja, they were not always easy to see because of the clouds but were clearly appearing on our cameras and phones. The lights became stronger for 10-15 minutes getting more visible even through those clouds.
We went out in the bay, watching the yellow moon in between some clouds above Esja. We waited for the lights to come out, as patient as we could be. However, tonight was not our night, and they didn't come out for us. So we decided to give out complimentary tickets so our passengers can come back again night.
It was a very chilly morning here in Reykjavík, so we put on our warm and cozy overalls and off we went in search of cetaceans! Two blows were seen in the middle of a big flock of kittiwakes, they were from 2 humpback whales that were feeding separately. We then saw one of them again in the afternoon and even witnessed a peduncle throw! Brilliant!
Today was another sunny day in Faxaflói bay, although the wind was strong and the sea was quite choppy. We had a pod of at least 4 white-beaked dolphins on both tours, but by the time we tried to get closer to them, they had disappeared. Despite our best efforts, we had no other encounters and therefore decided to give out complimentary tickets to our passengers!
We sailed out in calm seas, away from the city lights enough to see the starry sky and eventually we saw a shooting star! We had waited for a while when we spotted a green dash on top of Esja, finally the northern lights came out and they grew stronger by the minute!
In the morning we spotted a humpback whale, and saw another blow not too far out and it turned out to be 2 of them next to each other, and a minke whale and a pod of 10 white-beaked dolphins! This afternoon we saw 2 humpback whales (so close we thought they were touching the boat), then we saw 5 white-beaked dolphins as well as 6 harbour porpoises!
It was a beautiful night without a cloud in the sky. First the northern lights were present but very faded, barely visible for the untrained eye. Towards the end of the tour our patience was rewarded and nice green colours finally appeared in the sky with some movement and a lovely bright arch of northern lights made our night.
Great tour with northern lights dancing since the very beginning of our trip. We were very lucky with the activity, which lasted with high and lows pretty much for the entirety of the tour. The activity gradually decreased as the tour neared the end of the trip, which is when we focused our attention to the constellations on the sky!