THURSDAY, 1 AUGUST 2019

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  19:00

Report from Hafsúlan: It was getting a bit chilly after one of the warmest day of the summer, but we kept warm in the overalls provided aboard. On our way to the areas where most of the minke whales were seen on today we spotted some large splashes. These turned out to be feeding 9-10 white beaked dolphins! A flock of hungry northern gannets circled above the dolphins, waiting for the right moment to plunge after their prey. The dolphins entertained us while feeding, the young calves were distracted by our appearance and started interacting with the boat. We turned off the engines and enjoyed the curios dolphins that kept circling our boat. Later, some of the dolphins seemed to be mating, close to the surface! Another active pod of 3 dolphins were seen further out, first jumping high out off the water and then calming down and becoming elusive. On the way back we cruised through the smooth seas with music and stunning sunset.

-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  17:00

Report from Eldey: Again this annoyingly fantastic weather. The tour started slow, with a single minke whale sighting. The surfacing pattern was very regular and we could anticipate it resurfacing every 2 minutes, which gave us great photo opportunities. Soon after we came to an area with hundreds of feeding birds. Under the flocks there were plenty of feeding minke whales. I would estimate 5-6 in this fish rich spot of the bay. We could even see a rainbow in the blow of the animal...something we call a "rainblow". It was challenging and sometimes funny with all these whales around to keep track and to concentrate on one individual. Another tour in minke paradise.

-Lucas Heinrich

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  14:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Still surrounded by nothing but sunshine, we also sailed out with high spirits this afternoon. Our juvenile minke whale from this morning was not around anymore, nut we did encounter another minke whale only about after half an hour. As this one was a bit shy, we decided to move on rather than wait for it. It was in one of our hot spot areas that we encountered 2 minke whales feeding independently from each other. As we were watching them, we spotted even more minkes, at least another two, that we also approached. One of these was very trusting and surfaced so close to our boat. We saw it's blowholes and heard it's powerful exhaling. We can't wait to go out on the ocean again.

- Kristin Vidja

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  13:00

Report from Eldey: The weather held up as a proper summer day in Faxafloy bay. We headed to straight to the area where we had our sightings in the previous tour. Right after we get there we saw a minke whale surfacing in the middle of a feeding flock of birds. We remained in this area for quite a while and had the chance to observe at least 5 minke whales feeding! On our way back we were surprised by a pod of around 5 white beaked dolphins that were curious about us. Nobody remained indifferent when these beautiful creatures started to bow ride alongside our vessel! Definitely a great tour!

- Inês Cunha

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  10:00

Report from Hafsúlan: I'm sailing on sunshine, wohoooo. Such a beautiful morning and an absolute memorable, extremely special tour for all of us. Just past Engey island we spotted a juvenile minke whale, less than 3 meters large, that was absolutely curious about our boat. It approached our bow within centimeters. As it began to understand that we would move from side to side to watch it, it swam underneath us constantly and playing hide and seek with us, sometimes suddenly sticking it's head out on our right side, sometimes on our left. We turned off our engines and just let this minke whale do human watching for a good 40 minutes until it left us. Although we did spot it again we decided it would be better to leave it alone so that it would focus on finding food rather than being distracted playing with us, just like our children would. We sailed through more of the bay and spotted another 3 minke whales during the trip but none as special as this young individual that took such an interest in us. Nature is amazing!

- Sabrina Voswinkel

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  09:00

Report from Eldey: It seem that the awesome lucky streak continues. Sun, calm seas, perfection. We sailed out for an hour in the West direction when we saw a huge flock of feeding birds. This was one of many we saw forming on this tour. The beautiful thing was that they were not alone. We saw 4-5 minke whales accompanying these mega flocks, creating wakes from them eating the fish on the surface. One more excellent tour we were lucky to be on board for.

-Lucas Heinrich

Birds seen today: Atlantic puffin, northern gannet, northern fulmar, common guillemot, black guillemot, eider duck, arctic tern, kittiwake, arctic skua, great skua, lesser black backed gull, manx sheerwater.