Tour at 19:00 Report from Elding: For tonights evening tour, winds had picked up a little, but conditions were generally ok. This tour was a little difficult in terms of spotting wildlife. It was about an hour and a half into the trip when we first sighted a minke whale. We saw it come up in the distance and tried to get closer. This individual surfaced a few times, however after one surface sequence, was not seen again. Sailing around to spot it again we eventually saw another blow and bits of the back of a whale. This whale was positions in the glare of the sun and it was difficult to see, but from the surfacing motion as well as the shape of the blow, the guide suspected a humpback whale. Unfortunately this individual also only surfaced two or three times, so it was never identified and not everyone spotted it. Just before we had to turn around we spotted some white-beaked dolphins in the distance, leaping out of the water. We immediately made our way there, however the dolphins stopped this behavior and also disappeared for a while. Luckily after sailing around a few more minutes, we spotted them again closer to the boat and they even leaped out of the water again. As we turned around, we encountered some technical difficulties with the engine and we had to wait a few minutes before continueing our return. As sighting success was a little less than hoped for and paired with technical difficulties, this tour was deemed complimentary and we hope to see our passengers again soon!
- Friedrich Rittner
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: The wind was definitely a little bit stronger than in the morning, which created a few waves and disturbances in the surface of the water. After 30 minutes we found two minke whales. Although they were not traveling together, they were surfacing quite often in less than 500 m away from each other. We stood there for almost one hour, getting a really enjoyable time, and then we resumed our travel towards the middle of the bay. We found one small pod of 3-4 traveling white beaked dolphins but they were not really in the mood for human watching and they kept going without stopping. After that we got word from a breaching minke, and we managed to spot the slender body of the animal jumping out of the water really far away in the distance. That was, unfortunately, the last time the animal breached. But in the way we did encounter a second pod of 4-5 white beaked dolphins that stayed with us and checked on us this time. A really nice and beautiful ending of the day for Eldey!
- Alberto Alejandro
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsulan: What an afternoon trip that we have experienced, it was unbelievable! Just few minutes after we left the protection of the harbour, we spotted a lot of mackerels and in between a minke whale. But it wasn´t only one individual, there were at least two of them in between the school of fish, they offered us really nice moments with close encounters and we were able to hear them while breathing. When we had enough of them, we sailed further out trying to discover more secrets in Faxafloi, and in fact we did. Some splashes in the distance warned us that something was going on and there they were, apparently only 6 white-beaked dolphins, but not long after another 4-6 white-beaked dolphins joined them in what seemed to be a big dolphin meeting. They were jumping out of the water, performing several acrobatics and delighting us with good moments. We had time for more and we tried our luck a little bit more and again we spotted another group of 4-6 white-beaked dolphins, this time they were more relaxed, traveling quietly. In the way back we had more surprises, at least 3 minke whales cross over in our way home. So it was definitely a minke-dolphin day!
-Rodrigo A. Martinez Catalan
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: Once again we sailed through calm water surface. We wish to have condition like this always. It was as good like all previous tours from last 3 days. In first half hour of tour we spotted dorsal fins of 2 white-beaked dolphins. It wasn't easy to follow this fast and tricky animals. For short moment we were surprised why there was only two, but a little further we saw another bigger pod o 6-8 dolphins. This ones were more likely to came close and spend some time with us. After leaving them, two single dolphins came across us one more time. Close to Hvalfjord, behind dolphins, some bigger backs appeared. When we waited a little and moved closed we could met minke whale. Around whale water was moving of fish. Probably whale was trying to eat some of them that's why didn't came to surface more then few times. Luckily, another big pod of jumping dolphins showed off. This ones were dolphinetly in the mood for whale watching as they were playing around us. 3 pods of dolphins on one tour, its amazing! On the way back we found once again minke whales. It was in the same location as previous so probably it was the same individual. This time we had a better opportunity to take a good look at this great animal when was surfacing few times next to our side.
- Ewa Malinowska
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsulan: The day was extremely promising this morning and it didn´t take too long to spot one of our first cetaceans, a solitary harbour porpoise appeared from nowhere and it surfaced three of four times quite randomly before it disappeared. That was our first taste in the morning, but Faxafloi had more hidden surprises for us. Just few minutes later, we spotted a minke whale surfacing in the distance. We tried to get closer but this animal was extremely chaotic, random and unpredictable which lead us to conclude that it was milling or resting, a common behaviour in the cetacean world when these animals need a break. We decided to sail further out and in the way we could see that the waters were boiling in mackerel, there were a lot of different groups of this invasive species today in Faxafloi. After while without any sighting, we were a little bit desperate but how naive we were! Suddenly, just in front of our boat we witnessed something incredible; a minke whale breaching up to 10 times in a row! It was amazing and a rare behaviour that we were lucky to see. After this incredible experience, we came back to Reykjavik but not before finding more surprises in the way, more minke whales surfacing from now and then at least 3 of them, and a group of 3 white-beaked dolphins in the distance. Definitely, it was an extraordinary whale-watching trip.
-Rodrigo A, Martinez Catalan
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: We couldn't believe what a wonderful day we had ahead! Mirroric seas, 0 wind, and some opportune clouds that were increasing quite a lot the contrast in between the cetaceans and the sea! We couldn't ask for anything more for a whale watching tour. Almost right at the beginning we spotted at the same time the first two species of cetacean: a small pod of 3-4 harbour porpoises and two pods of 4-5 white beaked dolphins. We soon lost the porpoises, but focused on the dolphins. Although quite shy at the beginning, they started to feel a little bit more thrilled about our presence and started to play around our boat for some minutes. So nice to see the white stripers all around their bodies so close to our boat! After that we move on just to see around 3-4 minke whales, surfacing quite regularly within 100 m from the boat. In some occasions we also got to see them less than 40 m away from the boat! We enjoyed quite a lot this experience, what an unique way of beginning the day!
- Alberto Alejandro
Birds seen on today's tours: Northern Gannet, Atlantic Puffin, Black-legged Kittiwake, Common Guillemot, Arctic Skua, Eider duck, Arctic tern and Northern Fulmar.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. There is little wind but a bit cloudy. Hope you are able to join us on our search of these magnificent animals
