Tour at 1700
Report from Hafsulan: At the beginning of our evening tour it was not clear at all that this will be a very special tour, even the highlight tour of today. We went again to the area were we spotted the minke whales this morning. It took a while until we spotted some harbour porpoises. We continued our journey and it took another while until we spotted one minke whale. We spotted it only 2 - 3 times and then it went for a very long dive. Unfortunately we did not spot it again. We searched for some other minke whales and as we were almost on the way back to harbour we suddenly saw a very big blow maybe 1000 m away from the boat. Of course we went closer to this blow and it was almost unbelievable. We saw several big blows, we saw splashes and as we came closer we could see that these are humpback whales. We saw three individuals and they were really close to the boat. It was a pleasure to watch them and we enjoyed it a lot. We saw the flukes of these humpback whales and one was even jumping out of the water. It was very late as we finally went back to the harbour but it was an unforgettable tour for all of us.
Tour at 1400
Report from Elding: It was lovely and warm as we departed Reykjavík harbour but it didn´t last for long. We started at Akurey Puffin Island and there were many standing on the Island, flying around and swimming close to it. There were also Eider Ducks, Kittiwakes, Fulmars and Arctic Terns. We headed out after a few minutes of being at the island to the area we were this morning and on the way we ventured through fog which appeared suddenly as we didn´t have it on the morning tours. It was so thick that you couldn´t see 10 meters infront or around the boat which made the tour feel very eerie but it was blue skies and great visability on the other side even snæfellsjökull was clearly seen. The whales were a bit more difficult than the morning tours and there were less of them too. We did see at least 3 Minke Whales, maybe 4 but they didn´t allow us to get too close. However, they did surface many times. The Harbour porpoises were the star of the show on this tour. They were amazing. Surfacing less than a meter from the boat, you could see then swimming just under the waters surface and there were so many (30+) throughout the tour. They were so entertaining to watch. Great tour.
Tour at 1300
Report from Hafsulan: It was very warm as we started our 13:00 tour. Nobody could expect that this will become a very mystical tour. We went to the same area where we saw the minke whales in the morning but suddenly it became totally foggy. We saw maybe only 10 meters and it was a very strange feeling to have this fog all around the ship. It was very difficult to watch for whales and we were happy that we "met" a group of harbour porpoises. Luckily another boat informed us that they have spotted a minke whale. We went to the same area and we were totally happy to see this minke whale many times also very close to the boat. Suddenly the fog was gone and we could enjoy this minke whale a lot. It was like magic and the best thing was that even several harbour porpoises came very close to the boat. They behaved almost like dolphins since they were following the boat, we could spot them very close and they were absolutely not shy.
Tour at 1000
Report from Elding II: whale-watching is great almost no matter the vessel type but going on a small vessel such as Elding II gives a rather different experience from going on a larger one. For instance it feels as if you are closer to the wildlife, it is easier to appreciate the size of the giants of the deep when watching from a smaller boat. But the size of the boat was just one of many great things about this tour. The water was mirror calm, there was little wind and the view to land was vast and wide. Yet it was the whales (and porpoises) that made the day as we saw an astonishing number of them, somewhere between 15-20 individual Minke Whales in addition to a few (5-10) Harbour Porpoises on several occasions during the tour, and at least one Minke Whale even took a rapid course towards us, going like a torpedo through the water, incredible!
Tour at 0900
Report from Hafsulan: Already since several days the weather is simply great in Reykjavik. We started our morning tour today again with sunshine and blue sky. It did not take long until we spotted the first minke whales. During our tour we saw between 8 to 10 individuals and they were all around the boat. Sometimes we spotted at the same time one whale on the left side and another one at the right side so our passengers had to move quickly in order to see them. The sea was very calm and therefore it was very easy to spot the whales. We also saw several times harbour porpoises. They were close to the boat and always in a group of 2 - 5 individuals. It was a wonderful start of the day.
Birds seen on todays tours include. Puffins, Gannets, Guillemots, Razorbills, Arctic Skua´s, Great Skua´s, Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Eider Ducks and Seagulls.