Tour at 20:30Report from Elding: The weather conditions this evening were perfect, the sun wasn't shining but instead the ocean was like a mirror it was so calm and barely no wind. We searched for around 50 minutes before one of the passengers spotted a dorsal fin, but unfortunately we didn't see that animal again. We kept on going and then just infront of the boat a Minke Whale surfaced, it was even one of the Minke Whales we saw earlier today, it was obvious by the big piece missing in the animals dorsal fin. The Minke seemed to be playing around the boat, surfacing close and always keeping close to us. at one time it put it's belly up and waved it's flipper at us. it surfaced many times and we got a great look at it when it swam just under the surface behind the boat with it's belly up and then we could see what a big and beautiful animal this is! far away around us we could see 2 more animals surfacing. On our way back Bjarni the musician kept us laughing and entertained after a wonderful midnight tour with a curious Minke.
-Freydís Ósk HjörvarsdóttirTour at 17:00
Report from Hafsúlan: In the evening, we headed directly out towards where we had seen the Minke Whales on the 1 pm tour. Even though the flock of birds was still around, no Minke Whales showed up, so we decided to head further and search somewhere else. Some time later, we spotted a glimpse of a Minke Whale, but it behaved elusive and only showed up once. Then, it took us again some patience until we spotted another Minke that again disappeared as fast as it had come - what was going on here, were they all tired from the feeding frenzy at lunchtime? We went further and guess who we saw again? exactly, it was "Humpie", the Minke Whale with the missing dorsal fin we had seen earlier in the day and we see here regularly in Iceland since 2011. Humpie surfaced quite frequently and eventually we had a nice view on a gorgeous minke. The cherry on the top however was a group of four White-beaked Dolphins on our way back right in front of Reykjavik's harbour- it is never over till its over! Like earlier in the day, Akurey the puffin island was almost deserted and only a few puffins were sighted, lets hope they are back tomorrow! Special thanks go out to all our passengers today, you were great and I enjoyed our little chitchats very much! :-)
- Hendrik Schultz
Tour at 14:00Report from Elding: The sea conditions had gotten better since the last tour and were actually very good although the sun wasn't shining. We were going to visit the Puffin island in the beginning but we got some great news from our other boat that the bay was crowded with life so we headed straight out. After around 40 minutes sail we weren't dissappointed as we found at least 15 Minke Whales that were feeding along with many different species of sea birds. The Minke's were surfacing all around us and some of them very close to the boat that we could hear the magnificent sound of the blow as they surfaced. For a while we just turned off the enginee and listened to the Minke's surfacing everywhere and the birds feeding around them. After we spent some time with them we headed to Lundey, one of the Puffin Islands to get a look at the home of the Atlantic Puffins.What an amazing tour with over 15 Minke Whales and the sea birds around them, it is amazing to watch how fast the wild life changes in Faxaflói bay. - Freydís Ósk HjörvarsdóttirTour at 13:00
Report from Hafsúlan: In the afternoon, the weather got much nicer since some of the clouds disappeared and the sun said hello to faxa bay. Once more, we stopped at Akurey, but still just a few representatives of the species were at home. As we went further out, we spotted quite some puffins on the sea, so at least we could have a closer look at them by then. It took only about 30 minutes until we spotted a Minke Whale that was surface-feeding at 12 o'clock exposing its white-pinkish belly for a very short moment. But this was just the beginning of an amazing tour: more and more individuals showed up (up to ten in total) feeding very close to the boat with many seabirds following them where ever they showed up. We even spotted a good old friend that has been coming here for a few years. It was a Minke Whale called "Humpie" and as its name predicts it looks a bit like a Humpback Whale - The animal is relatively large for a minke and is missing one third of its dorsal fin. It was a very enjoyable tour with minkes all around us and a wonderful atmosphere on board thanks to our nice passengers - Thank you very much! :)
- Hendrik SchultzTour at 10:00Report from Elding: The weather was still but the sky was grey as we headed, we started our tour in Akurey, one of the Puffin islands but it seemed that most of the birds were further out on sea hunting although we did see some. We sailed out and searched for around 40-50 minutes before 4-5 White-beaked dolphins surfaced just in front of the boat. This pod seemed to be very curious and they came up right next to the boat so we both got a good look at them out af the ocean and under the surface! They were even so interested in us that one of them Spy-hopped ( stuck his head out of the ocean and took a look around ) which was so amazing, it's always fun to see these different behaviours. As we headed further out we saw a large flock of feeding sea birds and surfacing under them were a lot of white-beaked dolphins probably around 20-25 animals which were surfacing quickly and feeding. They were all around us but moved away very fast. Soon it was time to head back to the harbour after a great tour with the White-beaked dolphins where we were able to watch different behaviours of these wonderful animals.-Freydís Ósk Hjörvarsdóttir
Tour at 09:00
Report from Hafsúlan: In the morning there was only a weak wind blowing and the bay was evenly overcast. Before we went our further, we visited Akurey, one of the puffin islands in front of Reykjavik to see the Atlantic Puffins. However, there were just very few birds at the island and we were guessing that the majority was further out at sea to catch fish. But this is just nature and of course puffins do not follow a daily schedule making it sometimes hard to predict if they are on the island. When we headed out further, it took us a littgle while until we spotted big splashes in the distance. It turned out to be a group of 3 to 5 White-beaked Dolphins and some of them were jumping very far out the water, which was impressive to see. When we continued our journey it was again a big splash that caught our attention. And again, another group of 3 to 5 White-beaked dolphins, this time coming closer so we could thoroughly enjoy them. This morning's tour was definately standing under the star of the dolphin and the diversity of interesting seabirds we were able to see.
- Hendrik Schultz
Birds seen on today's tours included: Arctic Terns, Atlantic Puffins, Razor Bills, Common Guillemots, Northern Fulmars, Manx Shearwaters, Acrtic Skuas, Eider Ducks, Black-backed Gulls, Kittiwakes, Northern Gannets
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