Tour at 13:00
The wind seemed to increase a little bit which made the air temperature a little bit colder. We set sail out into Faxaflói and saw a big blow from a Minke Whale in the distance and as we slowly approached we once again found ourselves surrounded by Minkes. We saw ‘Big Missing’ the Minke from this morning. We also saw a Minke we have been viewing every summer for the last three years called ‘Tucca’. We can identify the whales by the shape and indentations of the dorsal fin. On occasions we saw the Minkes feeding, plunging out of the water, mouth supposedly full of fish. Later on in the tour we came across a small pod of White-beaked dolphins which once or twice leaped out of the water. We saw quite a few scattered pods of Harbour Porpoises too but it wasn’t until we were heading home that we saw the largest pod of over 20, surfacing many times for the passengers to see. Thinking that was the end of the tour we heading inside to the warm but as we were very close to land we encountered another Minke Whale, maybe 100-200 meters from the coast in water only 10 meters deep. Just goes to show that the tour doesn’t end until the boat is docked. An amazing day for Whale Watching.
Tour at 9:00
The weather was once again lovely with a flat calm sea. It was overcast but that didn’t take anything away from a great tour. On our way out of Faxaflói we sailed past an area where there were hundreds of Puffins flying around, it was quite near one of the Puffin Islands near to Reykjavik which started the tour nicely. Further out to sea we came across a small pod of Harbour Porpoises that we stopped to have a look at but then suddenly out of nowhere a Minke Whale surfaced only 60-80 meters from the vessel. It was a Minke called ‘Big Missing’ pictured below. This Minke was spotted yesterday and last year in June. Later on we came to an area where there were many Minke Whales surfacing all around the vessel. I gave up telling the passengers were to look as there were so many. On the way back we came across an area where we saw White-beaked Dolphins, Minke Whales and Harbour Porpoises. We stayed with the dolphins for a while as we already had such luck with the other species. Birds we saw were Guillemots, Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Puffins, one Gannet and the 4th Arctic Skua we have seen this season. Fantastic Tour!