Tour at 2030 Sadly we had to cancel this tour due to unfavourable weather out in Faxaflói Bay. We contacted everyone who had reservations and offered them alternative tours.
Tour at 1700
Report from Hafsúlan: We were all prepared that there is swell in the bay when we left the older harbor in Reykjavík. We decided to sail straight out into the bay and to visit the puffins on our way back. We did not sail far until we had a amazing surprise. We even did not passed the lighthouse at Grótta jet when we saw a big splash. It was a breaching Minke Whale, that came with the whole bodie out of the water!!! Unbelieveable what a great great show. This Minke Whale was not only breaching once it did it at least 8 times, very close to our boat!!! We could see the whole bodies in its different colours again and again. Unforgetable experience for all on board. After this show the Minke disappeared and we headed further out into the bay. We sailed a long time through the foggy and rainy bay until we suddenly found a second breaching Minke Whale! This one was a bit in a distance and breached for at least 3 times. After that we searched for a long time without any other signs of whales, so we went to Lundey to look at Puffins on our way back. What a great tour what a magical end of a day!!!
Tour at 1400
Report from Elding: this tour we had a captain in training but this went well as our new captain Njáll is very experienced. We went out into the bay and it was very evident that the tour would be more of a challenge not only in terms of human cooperation but also because there was more swell and more wind than had been in the morning. It took us about an hour and a half to find our first Minke Whale and then we only had a few looks before we lost him. Soon we found another one and then a third and of them we had some nice sightings but perhaps the top of the day was not the whales but the many air battles we witnessed between Arctic Skuas and Gulls. The former are well known for attacking other birds holding food, trying to get them to release it from their peaks so the Skuas can then pick it up. You kind of feel sorry for the birds that get attacked by the Skuas this way after they have earned their meal but then it is nature.
Tour at 1300
Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed into Faxaflói Bay which was a bit more choppy this afternoon. At first we stopped at Akurey to watch the Puffins on the island and then we sailed straight out to search whales. It did not took us a long time to find the first Minke Whales but they were challenging to spot. There were 3+ of them around and we stayed with them for a while before we headed on. We were searching for quite a time until a passenger spotted a Minke Whalein a distance. This one was great to watch and we saw it surfacing many times in many distances, even close to the boat. There was a lot traffic around the animal as there were more and more boats coming to us so we decided to leave the animal in peace and to head back towards land. On the way back we spotted once a pod of 4 to 5 Harbor Porpoises but the disappeared just the moment we arrived. Good tour in a bit more swell than we had during the last days.
Tour at 1000
Report from Elding: This was Peanut's tour! Peanut, a Minke Whale well known to our PhD researcher Chiara was the first whale seen on this tour and what a lovely time we had looking at it. At some time into the tour we found this whale and it would not be afraid of us whatsoever but just calmly toy around in the surface, we never lost it as it never went down for a deep dive but just was in the surface. It was great to be able to tell the passengers the idendity of this whale as it may strengthen the bonds they may form with it and enhance the experience. We saw two to three other Minke Whales on this tour and just the same as Peanut, they were just calmly there. What a great tour!
Tour at 0900
Report from Hafsúlan: We started a new day in Reykjavík older harbor this morning and went straight to the puffin colony Akurey. Those cute birds are always great to watch and at the moment there are many of them around! Then we went to head on and already close to the island Grotta we saw many birds busy feeding. Because of this good sign we started to search straight ahead for whales and it was right to do that as we found Minke Whales not far out in the bay. There were 3+ in the area with us and one of them was brilliant to watch. We spended nearly the whole tour with this one and it seemed to like our boat a lot. It was circling around us surfaced close and made it hard to leave when we had to head back to the harbor. Very good tour and a great start into the day!
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