FRIDAY, 2 AUGUST 2019

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  19:00

Report from Hafsulan: A blue sky, a flat sea, a light wind. Almost all the ingredients to have a nice whale watching. We sailed peacefully in Faxafloi bay searching for the whales and dolphins seen during the day in the previous tours. We saw first, really quickly, a small pod of harbour porpoises. After an hour and a half we saw another harbour porpoise pod and a little bit further a minke whale. We had a really good sight on the minke whale and stayed with this beautiful creatures for a while. We left the whale to look for other species and we found playful white beaked dolphins. At least 7-10 of those cetaceans were near our boat, bow riding, jumping and probably feeding. We left them under the sunset. A really nice midnight tour.

-Miquel Pons

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  17:00

Report from Eldey: What a day, weather and animals have been just fantastic. We encountered minke whales nearly precisely where we had left them on our 13 o'clock tour. There were probably 4 minke whales around and feeding, amongst them CiCi, one of our minkes that keeps returning to this bay year after year since 2014. The minke whales were all so relaxed, did not mind our presence at all, and we could simply stay around them for one and a half hours. What a luck and joy and great way to end the day.

- Jose Manuel Valero

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  14:00

Report from Hafsulan: The weather was still amazing. Flat seas, almost no wind, although the breeze from the North reminded us that we are quite close from the North Pole. We were sailing calmly when we had our first encountered. A minke whale surfaced in the distance. We got to the area to discover that, at least 6 minke whales were feeding in the same place, together with hundreds of birds. It was truly special to be surrounded by these magical creatures. Some of them appeared really close to us, so it was a real pleasure to be there. After a while, we decided to continue our course to try to find more animals. We didn´t have to wait too long until a pod of 5 white-beaked dolphins started to play with our bow, jumping all around the boat and just giving us a lot of unforgettable memories. I was really happy to had the chance to guide such an amazing tour.

-Elena Gutiérrez Ruiz

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  13:00

Report from Eldey: No real change in weather this afternoon, so spotting was still very easy and again successful! We had 2 species on this tour, starting with a pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins that were milling just about 40 minutes out from the harbour. As they were moving really slowly, it was great to get photos of them. Knowing that there must be more live further out though, we continued, finding 3 great minke whales feeding about 10 miles out. One individual stayed with us for nearly an hour, a really great encounter. As we got short on time and made our way back, we saw another, even nicer pod of 7 white-beaked dolphins that came within only meters of our boat. Clouds began to break apart and we basked in the sunshine on the last hour.

- Sabrina Voswinkel

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  10:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Mirror like seas made the spotting a lot easier once again and we even got a little bit of sunshine during the tour as well. Just about half an hour into the tour we saw a few fins coming up in the distance. It was a pod of 5 harbour porpoises. These animals usually don't stay close to the boat, but these ones did and we were able to observe them for a few minutes. A little bit further out we came across 2 minke whales, surfacing a few times, but also going down for longer periods. There was also a pod of 5-7 white-beaked dolphins nearby, so we decided to pay them a visit. The dolphins were very relaxed and surfaced around us for a long time, once going for a dive underneath the boat as well. Turning back to the minke whales it got even better and all of a sudden we were surrounded by at least 6 minke whales, all of them rather close to the boat. We turned off the engines and just listened to the whales surfacing around us. A great moment to end the tour with.

- Diana Besel

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  09:00

Report from Eldey: Although it was a bit hazy this morning, seas were like glass. So beautiful and calm. With such weather iwe had no difficulty to spot many actively feeding birds in the distance and aimed our boat into that direction. Going there we saw few of the adorable harbour porpoises porpoising past. But knowing the area further out must be very productive, we did not stop for them. As we got to the lively area, we were just surrounded by birds, at least 3 minke whales and more harbour porpoises. Even a pod of 3 white-beaked dolphins showed themselves milling!  Everything was so easy to watch with the calm weather and nature really gave us a great show of how wildlife really behaves when it is untrained and free. And she topped it off by another pod of white-beaked dolphins just at the islands in front of the harbour!!

- Jose Manuel Valero

Birds seen today include: atlantic puffin, common guillemot, northern gannet, northern fulmar, black-legged kittiwake, arctic skua, eider duck, lesser black-backed gull, great skua, manx shearwater, arctic tern