Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. The wind is coming from the South East and is about 4-6m/s. There could be a little movement on the boat out on Faxa Bay.
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: After a good day with good sightings we sailed out into the misty bay full of hope and good vibes. Being that said, the weather conditions were not the best. Strong and cold winds made our sailing out a bit rougher than expected. Nonetheless, we wisely made use of our overalls and blankets to keep ourselves warm. After 30 minutes of sailing we encountered the first cetacean of the tour. A minke whale! what a magnificent being! this time it was most likely feeding close to the seabed due to its long deep dives and the information the captain could gather thanks to the fishfinder we have on board (high frequency sonar which shows us only what´s underneath the boat and the depth). We could know then, there was a lot of fish at the bottom of the bay. This minke was a bit shy so we could only catch a glimpse of it only 3 times. After some time waiting for it to come back we headed a bit further out to try our luck. It might have come somewhere further out without us noticing it. Anyway, it was a good appetizer for what was about to come. After 20 more minutes of sailing we finally found two pods with about 7 individuals each of white-beaked dolphins! lovely creatures which made our tour unique. A lot of leaping, feeding in the deep and close to the surface, some bow-riding, swimming underneath us and they got also very close to the boat!. We also saw a solitary one breaching like 10 times non-stop at about 500 meters away from the boat!incredible behaviour we had the chance to watch!what a show!
- Jorge Pascual
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: Although it was still pretty grey out in Faxa Bay we were lucky that both the wind and rain had calmed a little since the morning. After around 50 minutes of sailing we spotted our first pod of 8-10 white-beaked dolphin. These individuals were surfacing very calmly and close to the boat, giving us a great view and photo opportunity of them even when swimming under the water, where their beautiful white beaks, stripes and grey saddle patches made them most easy to follow. During our half hour with them several came into the bow of the boat and we also saw some leaping! Whilst traveling out in the bay we came across a further 3 pods of dolphins, mainly smaller groups of 3-8 individuals including some small calves surfacing by their mothers. Individuals in at least two of the pods were doing some really impressive leaping, with one doing some full rotations only 50 m from the boat to the "oohs" and "ahhs" of the passengers. On our way home we were also delighted to come across a particularly large minke whale! This whale surfaced several times within 50 m of the boat, which was really impressive as it was probably about 10 m long! Although today was most definitely the day of the dolphin, this minke was a real added bonus to an already fantastic tour.
- Ophelie Humphrey
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: This morning started off under a clouded sky, but the wind had calmed a lot compared to the previous days so that most of our passengers could stay outside. We set out with an almost full boat. It was really nice to have so many people joining us on a whale watching tour today. After about 50 minutes of sailing we encountered a pod of 5-6 white-beaked dolphins. The pod turned out to be very active and surfaced multiple times very close to the boat before 'Mr. or Mrs. Twister' started the show. The dolphin leaped out of the water in perfect twists for at least 6 times so that great photos were easy to take. When it was time for us to head further out we saw more white-beaked dolphins, about 3-5 individuals and a small pod of about 3 harbour porpoises. We also heard about a minke whale and made a circle to look for it but unfortunately couldn't find it. Then we had to turn back to the old harbour of Reykjavik. What an acrobatic dolphin morning out at sea.
- Barbara Neubarth
Bird species seen on today´s tours: northern gannet, northern fulmar, lesser black-backed gull, common guillemot,black-headed gulls, arctic skua, eider duck, european shag.
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