Tour at 20:30
Once again we started the tour by visiting Akurey and there must of been the full 10-15 thousand birds that breed on the island every summer. All sitting on the water near the Island and clusters of then on the near rocks. Really wonderful to see so many. On the way to the whale watching ground a passenger spotted a small pod of Harbour Porpoises that were fast surfacing. We stayed with these for about 10 minutes before we continued on. We came to an area where there was a lot of birds feeding, Arctic Terns, Kittiwakes, Skuas and Gulls and behind the birds a Minke Whale surfaced. The Minke Whale surfaced many times, on occasion less than 50 meters from our boat and also a couple of times showing feeding behaviour (surface splashes). There looked to be 2 or 3 in the area. We left this area after a while and after travelling for a time another Minke was spotted behind us. After spending some time with this Minke we did a little sweep of the area and came across a pod of White-beaked Dolphins (8-12 individuals). They weren´t being that interactive and showing actually showing some avoidance behaviour so we didn´t stay with them long. On the way home we came across another Minke which we watched for a little while. Very good day all round.
Tour at 17:00
Akurey was our first stop and again, a lot of Puffins on the island and around it. Then Faxaflói bay. We can call this tour a Minke Whale tour. We spotted at least 7-8 individuals. Some of them came very close like 5 meters in front of our boat. One Minke Whale swam alongside us for quite a long time, just taking very shallow dives and surfacing quite frequently. We could smell the bad breath, hear their breathing sounds and have good look at the whale. The captain spotted a big blow far, far away, and a big splash, so we headed further out, searching for a Humpback Whale. When we came closer we spotted again some splashes. We spent some time searching but no more sign of the whale. Of course we were very disappointed but this is the wild nature. But 7-8 Minke Whales, so very very good tour.
Tour at 13:00
Our first sighting on this tour was a pod of Harbour porpoises. When we were checking them out a Minke Whale popped up out of the blue. This Minke Whale was fantastic, coming close and surfacing many times. We spent some time with the whale. Later another Minke Whale showed up but it was not in a good mode, so we headed back to land. On the way back we spotted a large group of White-beaked dolphins. It was a nice group, surfacing several times but the time was out for the whales because we ended the tour by visiting the Puffins on Akurey. We spotted also a lot of birds out on the bay: Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Arctic Terns, Guillemots, Gulls and Puffins. So very nice tour.
Tour at 09:00
It was threatening drizzle, the visibility was pretty bad but the sea state was quite calm. We started by visiting Lundey (Puffin island) and saw thousands of puffins and other species like Gulls, Arctic Terns, Fulmars and Kittiwakes. After sailing offshore for about 20-30 minutes a Minke Whale was spotted in the distance, as we approached the whale slowly it become comfortable with us so that we were able to watch it for quite a while. It surfaced many times and sometimes less than 100 meters from our boat and on occasion less than 50 meters. We decided to give this whale a break as it was so good to us, so we headed further offshore and came across an area where there where two Minke Whales. There was already a tourist boat watching one of the whales so we tried to look for the other but it was only seen once. We sailed around for a while in hope that we would find another species and we did, a pod of Harbour Porpoises. Then as we started to head back to the harbour we also found a small pod of White-beaked Dolphins (5-7 individuals), which ended the tour perfectly.