SATURDAY, 29 JUNE 2019

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | at 20:30

Report from Elding: We sailed out into another light Icelandic night. The waves were quite choppy, but it didn't matter to us, we had fun. The lighting of the night sun lit the way for us to see minke whales at a distance that was quite satisfactory to us eager whale lovers. We even had the honor of smelling a minke breath that made it quite obvious what it had for dinner. A rare sight was seen as well a bit later; 4 harbour porpoises passing next to us in a relaxed manner and surfacing frequently. The tour finished of with white-beaked dolphins jumping at the distance in the white waves and strong wind. Once we got closer they disappeared. A most unusual tour, but not lacking beauty and wonder.

-Lucas Heinrich

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | at 17:00

Report from Eldey: We started into the tour with some light drizzle and overcast sky. The wind had picked up considerably from the previous tour and we had a lot of white caps on the waves. Still, we were optimistic for this tour, as the day had been going very well, with a lot of sightings of minke whales. Our first sighting, after sailing for about an hour, was a minke whale. We only saw it once, before it disappeared. Soon after this another minke whale popped up twice, before vanishing, just like the first one. A big flock of birds caught our attention, unfortunately it was really just birds and no cetaceans showed up nearby. We kept searching, facing the strong winds, but could not find any other cetaceans during this tour. Therefore we gave our passengers complimentary tickets, so they can try their luck again on another whale watching with us for free.

- Diana Besel

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | at 14:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Another tour, another win. The weather continued to not surprise us with the same state it was during the tour before - cloudy, cloudy and a little bit cloudy. On this tour, if there was something lacking, it for sure wasn't minke whales. They were all around us; one surfacing while the other is diving, to the West, to the East, everywhere, minke whale. It must have been 10 of them in total during the whole tour. Once we saw it 20 m away from our bow. This allowed us to see the characteristic white patch on it's pectoral fin, fluke Amazing. We also saw 2-3 harbour porpoises and on the way home 3-5 white-beaked dolphins that swam under the boat. Nature was good to us on this tour.

-Lucas Heinrich

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | at 13:00

Report from Eldey: The weather had not changed much from the earlier tours. We approached the area we had been in on the morning tour, and we were not disappointed! We found quite a few minke whales, or about 7-9 of them! They were both near us and far from us but some of them came very close to our boat and gave us the opportunity to see their coloration and details on their skin very well! Yet another awesome tour with Elding!

-Kristín Viðja Harðardóttir

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | at 10:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed from Reykjavik under heavy skies, but we stayed off the rain until the last few minutes of the ride. We fallowed our usual plan and betted on the area where we most frequently encounter our cetaceans. Later on we spotted some promising white splash close to the horizon. On our way there we ran into a minke whale! This was the beginning of minke whale “sighting series”. As we tried to keep track of our whales, one sighting led to the next. By the end of the tour we had observed 8 to 10 minke whales (hard to keep count!). Most of these were foraging and they went for long deeper dive, but we manage to enjoy their presence quite close to our vessel. On our way back our passengers could finally focus on the surrounding scenery, holding a hot chocolate in their hands. Another happy tour with Elding!

- Inês Cunha

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | at 09:00

Report from Eldey: Our morning tour was accompanied by quite a lot of clouds, but there was no rain, almost no wind and the sea was flat. We were heading out for about an hour, when we had our first sighting. It was a minke whale, surfacing a few times around the boat, before heading off. Another one surfaced further away, but vanished as well. There were a lot of birds in the area, which usually means a lot of food around. We took a closer look at them and found 2 more minke whales, in between the birds, feeding together with them. It was a great sight and one of the minkes came very close to us. We heard word of another species nearby and started in this direction. Soon a pod of 3-4 white-beaked dolphins appeared, seeming quite relaxed around one of the other whale watching vessels. Splashes straight ahead caught our attention, leading us to another pod of 5-6 white-beaked dolphins. These dolphins came very close to us, diving beneath the boat, doing bowriding and surfing the waves on the side of the boat even for a little while, when we started our return to Reykjavik. On the way one more minke surfaced in front of our boat. Another great day to be out in the bay.

- Diana Besel

Birds seen on today's tours include: atlantic puffin, arctic tern, northern fulmar, common guillemot, manx shearwater, lesser black-backed gull, black-legged kittiwake, arctic skua