SATURDAY, 11 JULY 2015

Tour at 20:30 

Report from Elding: It was nice calm sailing out into the bay of Faxa, The hole bay was void of life, a bird here and there swimming on the waters surface or flying past.After 40 minutes of sailing we caught a glimpse of small splashes far in the distance with binoculars. It took us another 30 minutes to reach the area surprised by how far you could see with. It was 3 pods of white-beaked dolphins, each with maybe 3-5 individuals. They seemed to be resting for a long time and once we decided to leave they started to do big leaps, twisting their bodies in the air. After that we did leave them and headed southwards. On our travels we were again scoping the horizon for life and could see a vast amount of birds in an area we call Melakriki, we changed course and were on our way when we saw a big blow. A humpback whale, it was awesome to watch as it traveled slowly, raising its tail above the water on occasion and stopping for the odd munch. This area was full of plankton, you could see the massive brown shadows of it at the surface of the water the arctic terns swooshing down to grab a mouth full. We caught a glimpse also of a minke whale and another humpback in the distance but it was time to go home and enjoy the talented acoustics and vocals of Bjarni. A great end to an awesome tour. 

-Megan Whittaker

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We went out from Reykjavík again on this tour, and this time it took about one hour to spot the first minke whale. Actually, we spotted two minke whales in the same area, on close to us and one a little further away. So we slowed down and waited for the animals to resurface again, and soon one tiny minke whale surfaced only 80 m away from us. It was the smallest individual I have seen in Faxaflói, only about 4-5 m long. We could watch it close to us and then heading towards Reykjavík. After this lovely encounter, we moved on to look for more cetaceans a little further offshore. It took a while, but then we found a small pod of 3 white-beaked dolphins. They were a little elusive, but in the end we managed to get a good look at them, as they were traveling next to us for a while. As we headed back to the harbour, we also found another minke whale, so we got a last good look at this species.

- Hanna Michel

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: Today was definitively a good day for Elding passengers. Very soon after leaving the harbour, a minke whale and a pod of white-beaked dolphins were sighted with only few seconds of delay. The minke whale did not showed up again after going for a deep dive, but we could focus on the group of dolphins. There was a dozen of those wonderful cetaceans, and sometime they were even surfacing together in line ! This ballet kept on a little bit before the dolphins settled down and allowed us very close looks. We did not spent a very long time with them as we heard about another species. We rushed further offshore and could experiment Icelandic swells. The travel was really rocky, unfortunately for few sensitive passengers. But this rough trip was worth to withstand as in the end we finally met a humpback whale ! It was surfacing slowly so we could get very close to this superb animal, and stay for a while ! After a very pleasant time with this gentle giant, we decided to head back to Reykjavik, as we were running out of time. Strangely close to Reykjavik, we came across one more minke whale. This was a very comforting encounter, after a rough trip toward the humpback whale we could enjoy a totally flat sea and even a sunny weather with this very nice minke. We then came back home, still in awe after meeting those incredible whales.

- Guillaume Calcagni

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: This afternoon tour started very similar as our morning tour, nice weather, traveling west and spotting a blow several hundred meters in front of the boat. As we were getting closer to the animal which produced the blow, we realized it was a humpback whale!!! This animal was a rather small individual, around 8-9 meters long and seemed to be mainly resting during the 40-50 minutes we spent with it. This behaviour made it possible to get a very close look at it and it´s beautiful fluke on the rare occasion when it went for it's short dives. Just as we were leaving this animal we spotted a minke whale 600 meters behind it. On our way back we even sighted another species, two pods of white- beaked dolphins, traveling out the bay, giving us the best ending on this incredible tour. Estimating around 6-9 dolphins.

- Michaela Buchbauer

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: When this tour started, things were not looking very good. We were traveling far, and we were having troubles to find something. The cetaceans in the bay seemed to be determined to show that sometime you do not get what you want. We finally met a minke whale, but this one was either very busy or just elusive. It was taking long deep dives and surfacing only one time in between. It was very hard to follow it. After traveling more, we encountered another one minke whale, but it gave us the very same treatment. Eventually getting short on time, we headed back to Reykjavik, a little bit perplexed by those minke whales giving us the cold shoulder. We are well aware that sometime the animals just want to be left alone or are very busy feeding, but still it hurts a little bit deep down inside. Then a pod of miraculous white-beaked dolphins showed up, almost like to erasing our sorrow. We noticed some splashes far away and quickly deduced that it was a pod of jumping dolphins. It was really amazing to see them totally leaving the water when leaping. When we came closer, around 6 individuals showed curiosity to the boat and checked on us. They were passing under the boat and surfacing close to the passengers, almost touching the boat ! It was utterly impossible to not be excited in front of this show. The dolphins ended up surfing on the waves at the back of the boat, spreading sheer joy on all the boat. It was heartbreaking to leave them when time was due. This tour did not start very well but in the end it was one of the best experience you can have with dolphins.

- Guillaume Calcagni

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: On this nice morning we went out from Reykjavik in search of cetaceans, that have been filling the Faxaflói bay with life in the last weeks. It didn't take long until we encountered our first minke whale not far off from the boat. Two groups of white- beaked dolphins followed shortly after, which seemed to be resting at first and as soon as the boat came into the same area as the dolphins came up to our boat, checking it thoroughly from all sides. After a while we encountered even more animals, including minke whales, another pod of dolphins as well as a harbour porpoise on our way back to the harbour. While we were mostly surrounded by several marine mammals during the tour we got lots of good opportunities for pictures of these incredible creatures. Estimating 4-6 minke whales and 20-25 white- beaked dolphins.

- Michaela Buchbauer

Bird species seen on today´s tours include: northern gannets, northern fulmars, arctic terns, atlantic puffins, common guillemots, greater and lesser black backed gulls.