Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: The beginning of the tour was pretty special. Right from the boat we could see people watching the football match from the Eurocup. Iceland was playing against England and everyone was really excited as the match was coming to an end with 2-1 for the Icelanders. Nobody could believe they´d come so far. To everyone´s surprise Iceland finally made it to the next round!. Everyone was in a good mood on the boat after that. I want to believe that also the white-beaked dolphins were happy because of that. As soon as we saw the first pod in the distance they started to breach very energetically. You never now with dolphins but it really looked like they were having a lot of fun. We stayed with them for about 30 minutes as their fun kept going. We saw at least 3 pods with about 20 individuals in total. The light in the bay was pretty amazing and the sea conditions were incredibly good. Flat sea all around. We kept searching for other species with no success apart from more individuals of the beautiful and joyful white-beaked dolphin. It was my best dolphin encounter this season so far! On the way back our musician on board serenaded us with some beautiful accordion tunes that made the closure of the tour super special. Dolphins and music, what else could you ask for?
- Jorge Pascual
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: It was overcast when we sailed out and a bit chilly so we made good use of our overalls. We had been sailing for a while when the captain spotted some dolphins far out. It turned out to be a small pod of about two or three white-beaked dolphins and we also spotted a minke whale 2-300 meters behind us. They were swimming around us and they even swam toward us and under the bowel of the boat. They came up again around 8 o'clock and one of them came leaping out of the water! The dolphin even did it often enough for everyone to see, the whole animal clearing the water. We then decided to say goodbye to the dolphins and go see if we could find the minke whale, it surfaced often and didn't take long dives but it was hard to spot because it was often heading away from the boat but it came up only about 50 meters away from us on our 1 o'clock and then back up again only about 20 meters from the boat at 10 o'clock. The minke whale ultimately went for a longer dive and then it was time to head back to the harbour. A tour with a minke whale and a leaping white-beaked dolphin.
-Bryndís Ösp
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: The wind had picked up a little when we set out this afternoon, but the sun was shining around the old harbor of Reykjavik. There was some movement on the boat and after a while the Icelandic weather really showed how versatile it can be, because after a sunny sky, it started raining quite heavily for some while. Luckily our passengers could wear one of our comfy overalls so that they were prepared for every weather condition. After about an hour of sailing we saw a pod of 5-7 white-beaked dolphins and could enjoy their presence for over half an hour. They were diving all around the boat, likely feeding and kept us on our toes with all their direction changes. Everybody could take nice pictures of the dolphins, before we headed further out into the bay to search for more wildlife. However the cetaceans seemed to be a bit shy today and we did not encounter more of them. But we saw over a hundred puffins sitting on the water and could observe their diving and sometimes funny flying behaviors, before it was time for us to head back to Reykjavik.
- Barbara Neubarth
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: For this tour the sky had cleared a little bit so we got some sunshine on us from time to time and it was really warm and summery. We searched far to the south in the bay and we had to travel for a long time before we got rewarded with a minke whale! This was a fairly young whale not fully grown, but it was so curious on us! We got approached by it several times when it circled the boat checking us out. This was a really special encounter for us onboard and it feels very cool having these wild animals interested in the boat and looking at us. On our way back we got a short glimpse of a second minke but it only surfaced once. We were far out so we had to head back. Long search on this tour that payed of big time with a curious minke! Over and out!
- Marcus Bergström
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: We sailed out with an overcast sky but light winds so sea conditions were very calm. After about an hour of sailing we came across a pod of 6 white beaked dolphins. The animals seemed to be feeding, heading in all different directions. They had us running from side to side because they kept swimming under the boat. We could follow them under the water very well and several times they swam next to the boat and the bow. Everybody got a very good look at these amazing dolphins. Unfortunately we did not find any other wildlife during the trip but the dolphins had been great.
-Anouk de Plaa
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: It was overcast and some weak winds when we headed out this morning. The sea was calm with occasional rolling swells that rocked the boat from time to time. We soon came across a very nice pod of 8-10 white-beaked dolphins. In the pod we could see a mother and calf pair and also an old familiar dolphin to us, Montgomery! His very characteristic dorsal fin is hard to miss, which looks very pointy and half at the front. Good to see one of our regulars again. The pod was very playful and came up close to us on several occasions. So we really had a great time with the dolphins. We continued on though because we wanted to see if we could find something else further out. We found several pods of harbour porpoises maybe 10-15 in total. No minke whale or humpback whale were to be found so the porpoises got to finish this tour together with a large variety of seabirds. Over and out!
- Marcus Bergström
Bird species seen on todays tours include: northern gannet, northern fulmar, lesser black-backed gull, kittiwake, black-headed gull, greater black-backed gull, common guillemot, puffin, arctic skua, arctic tern and eider duck.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik on a cloudy but beautiful day. Hope you are able to join us to see these amazing giants in their natural environment.