Tour at 20:30
With a windy harbor we left for Akurey Island, one of the two puffin colonies. After spending a few moments with our friends there we headed out into the NON-windy bay. There was a slight swell but the weather was amazing out in the bay. We started seeing flocks of feeding birds, so we slowed down and sure enough a minke whale! As we spent more time with this one, it became more and more interested in the boat, so the Captain shut off the engines, and all was quite. At one point it surfaced only a few meters from the bow of the boat. Very close and wonderful. We headed further out in search of something different. It was a while before we spotted something again, but no one minded as the weather was beautiful and the sunset was really beginning to give us some amazing colors. As we were heading back into the harbor, once again close to a flock of feeding birds, another minke whale and a handful of curious and playful harbor porpoises coming very close to the boat. As we reached the harbor, the sunset was truly spectacular. A great trip with extremely close sightings.
Tour at 17:00
The weather was still very nice when we headed out again. And the whales were quite far out and not so many of them this time. We spotted a blow in a distance and when we came closer the first Minke Whale surfaced 100 m. In front of us. But only 4 times. Then the second Minke Whale surfaced suddenly only 50 m. Beside the bout. Very nice whale. This Whale surfaced many times, we could hear the breathing sound, and we could see the animal very close and smell the bad breath from it to. So all together very nice tour.
Tour at 14:00
This tour was very similar to the tour at 10:00 o´clock this morning. Few Minke Whales actively lunge feeding on the surface, making white splashes. One came up with the belly up and showed its fluke. We also saw many birds like diving gannets, puffins with sand eel in their mouth and skuas chasing the puffins. Interesting tour in excellent weather conditions.
Tour at 13:00
The wind had picked up slightly but it was clear skies and fantastic visibility. We headed straight out into Faxaflói Bay for about 30 minutes before we started to see the flocks of seabirds. The first flock was huge full of Gulls, Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Arctic Skuas and Puffins. We waited at the flock in hope of seeing a whale but no luck. As we headed towards the other flocks of birds in the distance we spotted some Harbour Porpoises that came very close to the boat, about 10-20 meters. It has been such a long time since we had a Harbour Porpoise close encounter. It was really nice. Then a Minke Whale was seen 300 meters away as we approached we found that the Minke was very approachable, surfacing less than 100 meters from us. There was at least two Minke Whales we saw on this tour, one of which was a very small one (juvenile, young adult) sometimes surfacing 30-40 meters from us. There were loads of Shearwaters and Gannets around too. On the way home we visited Akurey and saw loads of Puffins. Fantastic Tour.
Tour at 10:00
We saw quite many flocks of feeding birds on the bay today which is always a good sign for spotting the whales. And so we did. We found 5 Minke Whales actively lunge feeding on the surface, coming up with the belly up and showing the fluke. One came just next to the boat so we could see it underwater, surely a successful trip.
Tour at 09:00
Wonderful weather like all the last days. We started the tour by visiting the puffin island Akurey. Like yesterday the whales were quite far out. But in one good area we found 4-5 Minke Whales. The first one was in a bad mood but the next one was very nice to us. Surface feeding, coming close to the boat and at one point, there were two in the same area, sometimes surfacing at the same time. Very nice, lots of diving Gannets. Also many other bird species, Arctic terns, Fulmars, Guillemots, Kittiwakes, Gulls, Skuas and Razorbills. So, a very successful tour with at least three individuals very close to the boat. Very nice sunny day out at sea this morning.