Sunday, 14 August 2022

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 11:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 16:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 19:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 20:00

Report from Eldey: Very nice whale watching tour in the morning with good sea conditions, a bit windy though with some white caps but still good to spot the animals today ! As soon as we started to enter in the hotspot area, we saw a lot of birds in group feeding. We spotted first a pod of at least 10 white beaked dolphins however there were separated into 2 groups in the same pod. They were mostly travelling and came very close to our boat and being very curious! At some point we reached an area with a tons of birds everywhere, especially at least more than 10 Northern gannets flying around and travelling in high speed towards the water to dive and catch some fish. And everywhere, we might have seen at least 6 minke whales swimming around feeding. Some were very close to our boat, especially one that got very curious about our boat. A juvenile might have been in the group as a small individual was there. We stayed at least 15 mins with them. As it started to be a bit crowded, we left the area and on our way, we saw another pod of 7 white beaked dolphins jumping around and being much more social. 3 calves and one juvenile was in the pod. We started to head back to Reykjavik while we were leaving the dolphins alone that kept jumping.

- Enorha Guimard

Report from Hafsúlan: The sun was shining and the sea was calm so perfect conditions for spotting some animals. It took some time to spot our first whales but as we did we saw at least 3 individual minke whales! Those whales were calmly swimming around us and surfacing every now and again and one even dared to come very close to the boat. After that we encountered a big pod of 20 or more white beaked dolphins. They had at least two juveniles with them that were jumping around and having fun. Despite their playfullness this pod suddenly decided to magically disappear on us so we left the area to look for something else. And sure enough we found ourselves some 3 or 4 feeding minke whales. We stayed with them for a while until it was time for us to go home.

- Milla Brandao

Report from Eldey: What a sunny afternoon it was again as we set sail, though a little deceiving as there was a northerly wind which makes everyone cold! Still I was surprised to see not many people in overalls. Once we got very far into the bay I spotted a minke whale! This was a tricky individual and didnt show itself again. We heard rumours of a larger cetacean only 10 minutes from us so decided to take our chances. The rumours proved true and we saw a big blow of a humpback whale! It showed us the fluke and as we were waiting for it to resurface, a pod of 7 white beaked dolphins appeared! Then the humpback resurfaced and we saw more jumping dolphins in the same direction but a little bit further away. As all this was going on we then saw something small on our left - 3 harbour porpoises! It was a full house as we saw roughly 4 minke whales in the same area too, some closer, some further away. I was blown away and as we were already late we had to make our return journey back to Reykjavik. 

- Anna Richter

Report from Hafsúlan: We had a very sunny afternoon in the bay today. With still a bit of a cold wind on our faces, we sailed out to an area where we could see some seabirds, expecting to see a whale at any moment. We were not disappointed: we were in the same area of at least 3 minke whales! Although they were quite fast, we could track them for a while before we headed further away. This new area had not only one, but 3 humpback whales! We were surprised by how often they were coming to the surface, even though it was fluking up! Very active, these humpbacks blew a lot of bubbles and one showed us its baleen plates, with its mouth wide open. It was already an amazing sighting, but it didn’t stop there: a tiny harbour porpoise was passing by right in front of us, and another 3 minkes also joined the area, very active and even 2 coming to the surface together. With these amazing sightings of three different species in the same area, we went back home very happy and satisfied with nice pictures, videos and good memories of our Faxaflói stars.

- Cindy Schwenk

Report from Elding: with the most beautiful Icelandic sunset, we sailed out to an area where we saw a humpback whale earlier in the afternoon, expecting to see it again. Before we got to this area, we saw a small blow close to us, and we sighted a minke whale in front of us, showing us its chin before going for a dive. It was a bit elusive, so we decided to continue our way, and not even 2 minutes after leaving this minke, we saw a big blow on the distance this time. We saw another blow and then a big splash: we had a humpback whale in front of us! Carefully, we came closer and there it was, beautifully shining on the sunset, things that only the nights in Iceland during the summer can give us. A bit far from this one, there was also another big blow and a splash. We had another humpback in the area that was communicating with the one close to us. It was incredible and we could all enjoy this beautiful sighting, in which we also had another minke not far from us. With an amazing sunset, we headed back to Reykjavík enjoying the rest of our night.

- Milla Brandão

Atlantic puffin, eider duck, black guillemot, herring gull, black-legged kittiwake, Arctic skua, northern fulmar, lesser black-backed gull, common guillemot, Manx shearwater, northern gannet, cormorant.