26 JULY 2015

Tour at 20.30

Report from Hafsúlan: After being delayed by the late arrival of the boat we quickly set out in to the bay. We lucked out and had fantastic conditions with zero wind and a flat sea. There were barely any clouds in the sky and the sun made its way across the sky. Not too long in to our journey we spotted an acrobatic pod of white beaked dolphins. There were about 7-8 individuals including one I had named Mohawk from a previous tour. The came straight towards us and began bow riding, leaping, breaching and even spy hopping! Our companions joined us in our search for larger animals and we spotted several blows in the distance but alas when we arrived we couldn´t find the individual responsible. Soon we left the pod of excited dolphins and then joined another two in our search across the bay. By the now the Sun was just above the horizon and we were treated to some fantastic views. On our way back in to the harbour we then found a minke whale. This individual was traveling quite quickly and going for long dives but everyone managed to get a glimpse. With music being played downstairs by the talented Bjorni we sailed in to the harbour very relaxed. 

-Tommy Torrades

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: A humpback whale had been spotted in the south part of the bay, so we decided to head in that direction. The wind had slightly increased since earlier today but the conditions were still more or less perfect for whale watching. It took some time but the first cetacean of the tour was a minke whale, after a little more than an hour of traveling. The whale surfaced a couple of hundred meters away a few times before mysteriously disappear. We couldn't´t wait we wanted to find the humpback. Further out we saw one more minke whale and had almost given up about the humpback... The guide looked in opposite direction of the minke whale and could see in the distance a big blow! The humpback whale was found. It was feeding and moving around a lot but we had excellent views of this one. At the same time we saw a pod of 7-10 white-beaked dolphins, that at one point was bowriding a big cruise ship that was passing by. We headed back a bit late but it was so worth it!

- Marcus Bergström  

Tour at 14:00

Report from Eldey: We went out in search of the humpback again this afternoon. It was raining in Reykjavík harbour but as soon as we got out of the harbour the weather cleared up and it was a pretty calm and warm tour. We started by seeing a minke whale that surfaced slowly and pretty close to the front of the boat and then after a good surface sequence it disappeared from the area. We powered on to where w thought the humpback was heading and encountered a pod of 5 white beaked dolphins that were in a hurry somewhere and didn't spend much time checking us out. We finally found the humpback whale again but are unsure if it is the same as on Eldey's earlier tour today since this time it didn't show us the underside of it's fluke (last part of the tail). We stayed around and it came up to us a couple of times and checked us out by rolling over along the side of the boat. When we were thinking of heading back the humpback came up to us and fertilized the side of our boat. What a funny individual! On our way back we spotted one minke far away at the back of the boat swimming towards the shimmer in the sea. A good afternoon trip, with a funny humpback and happy passengers.

- Svala Jónsdóttir

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Full of hopes to find a humpback whale again, we started this tour again from Reykjavík. The wind was picking up a little bit, but the sea was still calm and we even got to enjoy the sun on this tour. We headed far offshore on this tour on our search for cetaceans and spotted a pod of 2 harbour porpoises. However, we didn't slow down for them but tried to find the larger species, and finally came across a friendly minke whale. We didn't recognize this individual but it didn't seem to mind our presence. In contrast, it gave us some really good looks and stayed around us for quite a while. We could even see the row of fluke prints every time it went for a dive. After a while we moved on and encountered a small pod of 4-5 white-beaked dolphins. They were traveling at high speed and clearly not in the mood to spend time with us as they avoided our boat by constantly changing directions and diving for a long time. It was very difficult to keep track of them so we decided to head back to the harbour. On the way, we spotted another two minke whales and one harbour porpoise. No humpback whale on this tour but three other cetacean species instead! 

- Hanna Michel

Tour at 10:00

Report from Eldey: The day started out well with news of a humpback being spotted far out in the bay. We left Reykjavík determined to locate it and on our way to the reported area we encountered 2 shy minke whales and a pod of white beaked dolphins that seemed to be heading somewhere in a hurry and had very little time to come check us out. We finally located the humpback whale and it kept a good distance from the boat. This made it so special when the humpback breached for us! We got a good look at it's flukes and ID'd it as a humpback called 'Mr. Square'. On our way back towards harbour we came upon a small and quick pod of harbour porpoises and another pod of white beaked dolphins going the opposite way from us. An amazing day out whale watching.

-Svala Jónsdóttir

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We went out from Reykjavík in very good sea conditions this morning. Even though we spotted a minke whale after about 30 min of sailing into Faxaflói, we didn't slow down but headed further offshore to find one of the humpback whales that we have seen on our tours lately. It took quite a while on this tour but after a little more than one hour we managed to spot the humpback whale that we call "Mr. Square". We could stay with it quite some time, saw a few fluke ups and saw it surfacing only about 20 m next to us. A nice tour with this lovely humpback.

- Hanna Michel

Bird species seen on today's tours include: northern gannets, northern fulmars, kittiwakes, atlantic puffins, common guillemots, arctic skuas, and lesser black-backed gulls.