MONDAY, 1 AUGUST 2016

Tour at 19:00

Report from Elding: This year we are trying something new in August with tours running at 7pm, as a replacement for the 8.30pm midnight tour. So we that worked this evening had the honor of sailing out on the first 7pm tour with Elding! It couldn't have been a better start because only minutes out of harbour we got a call from a fishing boat about a large whale close to land. We turned around and soon we found a humpback whale! It was slowly moving further and further in to the inner part of Faxa Bay right outside of Reykjavik. We passed all the puffin islands following this whale, so cool to see this large animal so close to land! The whale went for many deep dives raising the fluke high out of the water and in the setting sun it was a beautiful show we got to witness. At one point it did a roll at the surface giving us a glimpse of the long flippers. We spent a long time with this whale but we also had time for a short circle out in the bay to see a minke whale a couple of times. So we could sum up the first 7pm tour with 2 species of whales and a setting midnight sun. Of course live music was played on the way back. Over and out!

- Marcus Bergström

Tour at 17:00

Report from Eldey: The ocean calmness peaked on our tour, here we could have a clear example of a mirror-like sea. We even were treated with some nice lights, making the landscape dreamy ! The first cetacean we encountered was a minke whale. We could have few glimpses from far away but when we tried to get closed it proved to be quite elusive, taking long deep dives and surfacing far away from us, so we decided to leave it and try to look for something else. We then encountered our first pod of white-beaked dolphins. The dolphins were spotted leaping out of the water from far away, and when we finally got close they had calmed down and were surfacing gently around us. We could have satisfying looks at them, and as they were other boats with us present with this pod, we decided to try our luck further away. We went really far away out in the bay, still attracted by the flat sea and the lights shining on the back ground. In our errand, we could witness many birds, including an impressive number of razorbills and atlantic puffins. We came across two other minke whales but they were also very difficult, we could sight each of them a couple of time but not much luck with the baleen whales on this tour. The stars were definitely the dolphins, we found two other pods and could see more actions as leaping and feeding behaviours, and we even saw some juveniles ! On our way back, we could have quite close looks at harbour porpoises, as we met an adventurous pod close to our boat.

- Guillaume Calcagni

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: On the afternoon tour it looked like it was gonna rain a lot but we were lucky and only had a few drops raining down for a few minutes. The wind had calmed down which made the sea conditons even better than in the morning. After just 30 min we came across a minke whale! It was an individual without any nicks and nodges in the dorsal fin, so it was not Hàski again, the minke we saw on the morning tour. It was coming up frequently inbetween the dives and didn't seem to be bothered by us. We spent a short while with it before looking for someghing else. After some time we saw a single dolphin jumping in the distance but did not see it again when we tried to get closer. In the far distance, we saw more dolphins but these also disappeared when we tried to approach. However, we did not give up and after a while again saw a group of dolphins. This time they let us come closeruntil we got a nice look at a group of 4 white-beaked dolphins. These animals were resting and just swimming very slowly and very close together. But in the end of the encounter, the turned around and swam by the boat just 2 meters away and everyone was in awe. As we were running out of time, we said goodbye to these dolphins and slowly headed back to the harbour. But as soon as we left, we saw splashed in the distance produced by more of these dolphins. So, on our way back we came across another larger por of these dolphins, in total at least 15 individuals. They all were heading out into the Bay and two of them jumping around us a lot. The perfect end of the tour during which we also saw a couple of harbour porpoises on three occasions.

- Hanna Michel

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: Although it was raining in the harbour the moment we got past the harbour walls the rain cleared up and revealed the most fantastic calm sea with beautiful lighting. We had only been going out about 45 minutes when we encountered our first minke whale. This individual was quite small and changing direction often so after 10 minutes we continued further and found our second minke whale which was surfacing more regularly, coming up for 4 breaths between 3 minute dives. We continued a little further and found a large pod of 12-15 white-beaked dolphin! This group was surfacing beautifully and so synchronised, at one point we had 8 come up at one time in succession in the style of a mexican wave to the oohs and aahs of the passengers on board. The calm "milling" behaviour of the dolphins meant we could stay a while and get great photos of their beautiful markings. Once we left we came across yet three more minkes in different locations, bringing our total up to 5 individuals within 500 m. One of these even did a very large, exaggerated lunge feed that brought the front half of its body out of the water, for which I mistakenly called humpback whale - oops! At least it got some laughs when I sheepishly corrected myself. What a lovely tour, filled with many minkes, synchronised surfacing dolphins and gorgeous weather.

- Ophelie Humphrey

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: A typical Monday morning we all probably wake up with tired eyes after a long weekend. Best way to wake up is definitely to go out in Faxafloi enjoying the fresh breeze of the North Atlantic. This tour started of very good with seeing an old friend , the minke whale Háski. He was the most frequently seen minke whale last season and he became popular among the passengers on this tour as well. Next species of the tour was the white-beaked dolphin. We came close to a pod of 4-6 individuals and after following them for a couple minutes they turned around and swam straight towards us, swimming just under the bow. The sea was almost flat so it was really easy to see their white beaks and white patches on the body. But they didn't hang around for a longer time after that so we left them in peace and searched for other animals. We were lucky and came across a third species, a humpback whale! It was a photogenic whale, always bringing up its fluke when it went for a deeper dive and didn't stay underneath the surface for more than 4 minutes. You couldn't ask for more in this beutiful Monday morning out at sea. What a great start of the week!

- Johanna Bergman

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: We were a bit worried to have to deal with rain on the first tour of the day, but the weather decided to stay merciful, and we had to go through light rain only for a couple of minutes. With such luck it was not surprising that we found our first cetacean shortly after our departure. We met an amazing pod of white-beaked dolphins, including two calves that were shifting between leaping playfully and sticking with their mother. After a lovely moment with them, we went further away and found a minke whale. We saw it surfacing smoothly few times before we heard about other species from other boats. As we joined them we could sight a humpback whale ! It was looking quite busy, going for deep dives after deep dives, staying 2-3 minutes underwater before surfacing. As it was getting tricky to follow it, we decided to head for Hvalfjörður and found another humpback. It was keeping distance with the boat, we could see tail-lob once and then tail-slapping multiple times, an impressive show ! After such a nice morning, we went back home satisfied, in relaxing sea conditions.

- Guillaume Calcagni

Birds seen on today´s tours: atlantic puffin, arctic tern, northern gannet, lesser black-backed gull, northern fulmar, black-legged kittiwake, razorbill, common guillemot, manx shearwater, greater black-backed gull, oystercatcher, great skua, golden plover, redshank, black guillemot, whimbrel, black-headed gull and eider duck.

Status: RUNNING

We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. Its is cloudy but the sun could break out later today. It is little to no wind in the Harbour but it can always be a little movement on the boat out in Faxabay.