Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: This tour had two chapters, one with adventures and another with relaxing. The sea was choppy at the beginning when we were sailing in the opposite direction of wind, but it was also kind of fun to jump over the waves and felt like on the roller coaster. This rough conditions didn´t stop us from finding animals. Very fast we spotted pod of white-beaked dolphins surfing the waves. There was couple of calves with them and this kids were playfully jumping high above the water. Huge flock of feeding birds attracted us to went further where we seen minke whales. At least 3 of them were feeding in that spot. This whales were active and fast so following them wasn´t easy this time. We decided to check what is a mile further under the low sun, and there was humpback whale! Waiting for a humpback we saw a lot of splashes and there were dolphins once again! It seemed that this whale was a Daisy, but we could see a tail only once from far so I cannot confirmed that. As we turned boat around and started heading back home sea became calm and we couldn't´t feel the wind anymore. The views for the mountains were astonishing with a little bit of mist which made all contours soft under warm light of setting sun - we ended in romantic moods listening to the great live music.
- Ewa Malinowska
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: What a chaotic but great tour!! The beginning of the tour was a very difficult, we saw a minke whale two quick times and then it did not come back to the surface, so we moved on. After a few minutes, we saw a few large blows in the distance. However, we only saw a few more blows after getting closer to the area, without actually getting a look at the animal. As on so many other tours as well, patience was the key! We sailed just a little bit further North and saw two large flocks of feeding birds ahead of us, and a minke whale popped up about 100 m away from us! Our first look at a whale on this tour. A humpback whale was around as well, surfacing further in the distance and a couple of more minke whales as well! It was hard to keep an eye on everything that was going on while at the same time the animals were not that easy to see due to the waves and the behaviour of the animals. Next time we saw the humpback whale, it was a few hundred meters away from us and going for a deep dive so we had to wait AGAIN. However, shortly after the tables turned as the humpback whale jumped out of the water in front of us just about 200 m away. After that we saw the animal traveling slowly further out into the Bay and got to see a few nice fluke-ups. Some minke whales were still around as well, and when we were waiting for the humpback whale to surface again, suddenly a group of 8-10 white-beaked dolphins popped up all around us out of nowhere! No one saw these animals coming towards us, they were just everywhere suddenly, jumping leaping and swimming all around us! It was fantastic and a well deserved highlight after being so patient in the beginning. On our way back, we saw a couple of more minke whales and then we just enjoyed the sun for the rest of the tour!
Hanna Michel
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsulan: Sun is shining stronger with every hour and even if the northern wind is biting it´s a pleasure to be out on the water today! This tour was in the mood of siesta, because wildlife seemed to be less active and slower then in the morning. Anyway we were able to found interesting things to look at. Puffins, guillemots, gannets and other interesting birds were everywhere. Few times we were able to take close look at the balls of spawning fish gathering close to the water surface under attack of birds. Nice feeling to be surrounded by nature and wild creations. And like usually with feeding birds we saw feeding minke whales. Again we were lucky to saw a couple of them, one side by another, what is rare to see in this solitary animals. Few of minkes surfaced close to us hitting us with their stinky breath. That´s a close whale experience! I am happy that a lot of our guests get involved in looking for minkes, what made much easier spotting and following this fast and agile animals. Despite lack of other cetaceans we still had fun and a lot of attractions during this tour.
- Ewa Malinowska
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: What a trip, it was amazing! But let's start from the beginning. The sun was shining and the sea state was a little bit worst compare to the morning trip, but we were brave Vikings sailing the north Atlantic, with fear from nothing! It didn't take nor even 10 minutes when we spotted our first species: 4 harbour porpoises appeared in front of our boat and they disappeared almost immediately. We were sailing to one of our main spotting areas and everything turned crazy. We saw a minke whale surfacing next to the boat but as soon as we moved a little bit we could see much more of them popping around every now and then. They weren't alone, more harbour porpoises joined to the party and we had a really close encounter with a small pod of 4-6 individuals, we were even able to see them swimming under the water, it was incredible! But it wasn't all, not far away from where we were, we detected three white-beaked dolphins, adult males all of them so we enjoyed their surfacing behaviour and their huge size. In our way back, we came across with more minke whales and harbour porpoises, next to huge flocks of birds, it seemed that Faxafloi was holding us to stay longer! To finish the trip, we enjoyed a really smooth ride in the way back home, an amazing experience!
- Rodrigo A. Martinez Catalan
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsulan: Day is absolutely lovely with beautiful weather. This morning tour we started from enjoying amazing landscape on the way to our sighting area. Fist we spotted minke whale. This one surfaced only twice so we decided to go further where from far we could see a big blow. We found humpback whale. Unfortunately when we arrived the whale showed fluke and went for a dive. We weren't bored while waiting for a whale because pod of white-beaked dolphin appeared in the same area! We followed dolphins just to found more minke whales around. There was 6-8 individuals feeding close to us, it was so many of them that it was hard to tell where they are going to surface next. We really needed to have few extra pair of eyes around. Once a couple of minkes just approached us and dived together under our boat. With this weather condition we could see them trough the water. Magic experience! It was not all because on the way back we met our old friend, humpback whale Daisy. It was wonderful tour!
- Ewa Malinowska
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: Today was a bit windier than the last few days but the sailing conditions were still very fine and the sun was shining and the sky was clear. A nice day to look for whales, dolphins and porpoises. After about on hour of sailing into Faxafloi we reached an area with a large flock of feeding birds. And that's when the minke whales started to show up as well, there were at least 6-7 in the greater area, and then suddenly also a humpback whale surfaced in front of us! This was the animal we focused on for some time, but meanwhile we had the minke whales popping up here and there and sometimes pretty close, just 50 m away feeding underneath a flock of birds. Most of the time, however, we saw the minkes 100-500 m away. But we also saw the humpback whale up close and saw it raising it's beautiful tail above the water surface before the deep dives. We spent some time in that area with the whales, when one of our passengers also spotted a group of white-beaked dolphins that were feeding as well a few hundred meters away from us! There was so much going on. We decided to get a look at the dolphins and gave our attention to them for a while, it was a group of 10-12 individuals including a few babies/calves. They were quite playful and were jumping and leaping out of the water at times. The lovely dolphins swam around us for a bit, and when we were running out of time, we got a last look at another humpback whale that other boats had seen on the way, before we returned to the harbour!
- Hanna Michel
Bird species seen on today's tours include: northern gannet, northern fulmar, black-legged kittiwake, lesser back-backed gull, atlantic puffin, common guillemot, razorbill, arctic tern, arctic skua, and eider duck.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik on a sunny day. We hope you are able to join us on the search of these magnificent animals in their natural environment
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