Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: It was bumpy on the way out, we sailed into the wind so the swells splashed over the boat making it challenging to move around the boat. We had sailed for only 30 minutes when we spotted our first minke whale. At first we could only see the blow of the whale as it was at least 500 meters away and the swell made it more difficult to spot the whale. We saw 3 surface sequences before the animal disappear. After a long time searching we finally found another minke whale. this one was slightly easier to follow. On the way back we enjoyed life music with Bjarni who played songs and told fun stories until we got back to harbour.
-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir
Tour at 17:00
Report from Elding: The wind had picked up but the weather was still amazing on our way out with the sun beaming down on us. We were fortunate enough to have a quick encounter with with some white-beaked dolphins which were pretty amazing. After searching fruitlessly for a while we were a little worried but we were soon rewarded on our slow return by the sight of a couple of blows. Pausing, we had the most amazing encounter. A minke whale started breaching in front of us. Minke whales rarely breach - this whale breached at least 25 times! We were so excited we were literally falling over ourselves in the guiding box, and I was screaming into the microphone. This whale was ridiculous, we were actually checking and rechecking as it came up, disbelieving that it was really a minke whale. It was fantastic, I completely lost it. Hands down one of the best trips ever, we were all giggling like little children on the way back, including the actual children.
-Rachel Pool
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: It was such a lovely day to be outside. Sunshine, clear sky and only slightly strong winds causing some long swell. Despite these wonderful conditions, it still took us over an hour to encounter our first minke whale. We had 4 good surfaces of this whale when we heard from another boat, that they were with dolphins. Of course we wanted to show these to our passengers, just when we arrived, they had already traveled on. But instead of being dissapointed, we kept going further out into the bay. We got into an area with a bigger flock of birds where we spotted another, rather elusive minke whale. It was feeding, so we did get to see the rostrum - the tip of it's head - which was great. Just it was being difficult to follow, constantly changing direction and pace. When we decided to turn around and make our way home, we came across another even larger flock of birds, where we saw another two minke whales, also feeding and also showing their rostrum! That was definitely great and everyone appreciated seeing this behaviour, as it is the animals in their natural habitat and as you wouldn't see them anywhere else.
-Sabrina Voswinkel
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsúlan: Today was a wonderful summer day here in the faxa bay. Clear skies and not too rough sea conditions promised for a good tour. Unfortunately the animals in the bay did not think so and our sightings were scattered and rare. We spotted a 3-5 minke whales, however we only saw them surface once, maybe twice at a time before they disappeared again, making it difficult for all the passengers to spot them. Apparently we got a visit from one or two harbour porpoises as well, however they did their usual disappearence act and they were never to be seen again. We still had a nice day on the sea and even though we had an overall low sighting success, many passengers left with a smile on their face as we offered complimentary tickets to our passengers to give them another chance.
Friedrich Rittner
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsúlan: The sun was warm and strong on land but the forcast did say it would be a bit windy. We prepared our passengers for the colder conditions out in the bay and some believed us some didn´t. In the the end more and more went down for our awesome red and warm floatation suits. Seasickness tablets were also recommended as there was some residual swell causing a little quisyness in some. It was a challenging morning for the whale watching vessels to find cetaceans today. Thats OK though, we like a challenge. We eventually found an area with 3 minke whales and later another individual that surfaced slowly and close for everyone to take a few pictures. In the end we saw at least 7-8 minke whales and a couple of splashes from 2-3 harbour porpoises. The birdlife was not as abundant or diverse as the last days but it was still great. The ride bay was amazing with the sun on our face and a smoother, warmer journey home.
- Megan Whittaker
Tour at 9:00
Report from Eldey: Today is such a phenomenal day to be working outside. The sun is beating down on us like crazy and there's very little wind. About ten minutes after passing Grotta we saw a huge flock of birds in the distance. By the time we got there, the frenzy had somewhat subsided and the birds were just bobbing up and down on the water. Just as we were giving up hope and about to travel further out into the bay, we saw some splashes among the birds and before we knew it we were joined by a pod of 9 white-beaked dolphins. These guys were really curious and approached the boat several times, swimming very close to the bow (which to my dismay meant I couldn't see them anymore) so that all of the passengers on the boat managed to get an up-close-and-personal view of them. After turning a rather large circle in the bay, we then spotted (and smelled) a minke whale. This animal was so chilled out, once again coming very close to the boat so we could see its white chin as it surfaced. In between these encounters, we had a few of the adorable harbour porpoises pop up occasionally, but never close or long enough for good pictures! Needless to say we returned to port smiling with such a great start to the day.
- Rachel Pool
Birds seen on today´s tours include: Common Guillemots, Razorbill, Atlantic Puffins, Manx Shearwaters, Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Lesser and Greater Black-Backed Gulls, Arctic Terns, Arctic Skuas, European storm petrel.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavík on this beautiful day. We hope you are able to join us on the search of these magnificent animals in their natural environment.
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