Status: RUNNING
Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: Some of the crew member´s mood was excellent, and we had a lot of fun with relaxed passengers. It felt like it was going to be a great tour. One and a half dripping wet hours later with no encounter in the meantime almost nobody was speaking of fun anymore. Finally there was a pod of white beaked dolphins showing up, exactly one nautical mile away so there was hardly a chance to even have spot them. But nobody wanted to go home like this so we decided to have a look. Finally getting there, something different was around, and the moment everybody could see what it was no eye would have stayed dry. A very small minke whale, between two and three meters in length, was approaching the boat and would stay around for 15 minutes or so. It felt strange to have this baby around, acting extraordinarily like this. This exhausting tour turned out to contain probably a one in a lifetime encounter.
- Valentin Witek
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: The wind had picked up since the early tours but it was still very good. Our first encounter of this tour was minke whale traveling fast and surfacing quickly. We did get to spend some time with it and it came close to the boat so we got to hear it as it surfaced. The next encounter were 2 harbour porpoises that popped up right in front of the boat so we got a really good look at them in the water. We saw some minkes on our way back to harbour, but the rain and wind made it difficult to look for any animals. It was a good tour and we got to experience the Icelandic weather.
-Kolbrún Þóra Sverrisdóttir
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsúlan: One exceptional encounter was awaiting us, but unaware of this, of course, our tour started like many others. It did not take long until we got to see a humpback whale. We have seen this one before 2 days, it is not yet in the catalogue. This one showed it´s fluke three times in a row, maybe breathing once or twice in between. From our position next to it another humpback was in sight and we decided to let go of this one and have a look at the other. It turned out to be two of them, a mother and her calf, and we had chance to follow them for a while observing their traveling behaviour, for example how much more often the calf surfaced than the mother. We were given a rare chance to study a humpback family.
- Valentin Witek
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: First it was nice and flat just like in the morning but with time wind was picking up. Lucky for us we had great time with whales before it started to blow. Weather was so nice and warm that only few decided to put on overall but most of our passengers was spending this tour with me on the open deck. Our first sighting was very smelly as it was one of famous stinky -minkes, a minke whale. We followed for a while small individual till another bigger one also happens to be in the same spot. Bigger minke was traveling towards Hvalfjordur so did we. Now it seems like this whale was just trying to show us where his bigger friend was - a humpback whale. It was our first humpback of a day and it was new individual, not the same as previous days. This whale was also traveling slowly somewhere but we got to see it´s tail many times. On our last hour we saw also 2 harbour porpoises and another minke whale.
- Ewa Malinowska
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsulan: The morning was really good for sailing as the wind was non-existent and we could see our reflection in the sea because it was sea-glass-state. With these conditions, cetaceans must be found easily and indeed they were. We came across a tiny pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins and an extremely curious calf among them. Later on, we enjoyed from the distance another pod of about 4-6 individuals which preferred to stay in the distance. As we were sailing, we encountered many more cetaceans, especially active were minke whale because around 10-12 of them were crossing our path. Some of them were feeding and some of them simply traveling. In our way back home, a pod of 4-6 tiny harbour porpoises surprised us when we got closer to the harbour. And to round up the tour, we enjoyed a bit of sun which is always welcomed in these cold latitudes.
-Rodrigo A. Martinez Catalan
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: We had super smooth sailing this morning so we got excited to go out and have a great time. Our first encounter of the day was a small minke whale. It was not in the mood for us so we let him be. We saw lots of splashes in one are so we headed towards that direction. There were 6 white-beaked dolphins traveling very fast and jumping out of the water. We were able to travel with this pod for a good amount of time and have a closer look at this behaviour. At one moment we had around 15 dolphins around us. We left to see some more wildlife and even got to smell one particularly stinky minke.
-Kolbrún Þóra Sverrisdóttir
Bird species seen today include: atlantic puffin, arctic tern, northern gannet, razorbill, black-headed gull, black-legged kittiwake, northern fulmar, common guillemot, arctic skua, black-backed gull
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. There is little to no wind and very good sea conditions. Hope you will be able to join us on our search for these magnificent animals in their natural environment.
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