Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: Luckily the fog was gone by the time the Elding departed from the old harbour and seas was very calm, so it was a pleasure to sail tonight and spotting conditions were superb. A pod of white beaked dolphins was easy to make out, not the least because they were jumping a lot and getting closer it turned out to be a very young calf among them. This one was probably the smallest some of the crew members have seen so far, and it was interesting to observe it surfacing always simultaneously with the mother. Another pod of white beaked dolphins came across before we finally had a very short encounter with a busy minke whale which was hard to follow. So it was up to us to lean back on our way home, listen to live music by our troubadour and enjoy the sunset.
- Valentin Witek
Tour at 17:00
Report from Elding: We sailed out from Reykjavik, and were able to enjoy the sun doing so! After sailing for five minutes, we were surrounded by hundreds of puffins, arctic terns and many different seagulls! It was quite the sight, and a lovely way to start our sailing into Faxaflói. After further twenty minutes, we encountered a pod of 8-10 white beaked dolphins. They were great entertainment, as they leaped out of the water, accompanied by a smaller calf. In the horizon we saw many large flocks of birds and we went to check it out. The birds were frantic catching fish, right in front of our boat, and that’s when we spotted minke whales in the area. On the tour we saw a total of 5 minke whales. A great tour out in Faxaflói bay with lots of wildlife!
- Mia Rasmussen
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsúlan: As a continuation of excellent weather today, calm seas, little or no wind and even a few minutes of sunshine. We first spotted 4 white-beaked dolphins not too far away from the harbour. They allowed us to observe them for a while before they started to move away from us and that is when we continued our trip on the lookout for something else. Didn't take as that long before we were surrounded by fish, birds and at least 5-6 minke whales. It was impossible not to see them, even with a high number of passengers on board. They were everywhere. After we stood in aw for more then half an hour, amidst all off this action, we turned the ship around and satisfied went towards land. We even had an a capella group singing for us on the way back.
-Lucas Heinrich
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: The fog had lifted and we had miles of visibility, even some glimpses of sun. Yours truly really enjoyed being able to take the top half of the overall down and getting rays of sun in her face after a sunless June. Our first encounter of the day was a pod 6 white-beaked dolphins. they were pretty active and coming close to the boat to check on us. As we were having a look at the dolphins we spotted some minke whales. There were about 6 or 7 of them in a small area so we were basically surrounded by wildlife. Over all a really good tour with great encounters with the cetaceans as well as seeing loads of birds!
-Kolbrún Þóra Sverrisdóttir
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsúlan: What a tour, finally calm sea conditions, little wind and overcast skies. A very nice start to the day, we first sailed west and got work of a few small scattered pods of white-beaked dolphins. We found one pod of 3 that seem to be chilling out, milling around the bay. A fog bank came through the bay and visibility was difficult, another whale watching vessel informed us of an area with good visibility and a few minke whales. It took us a while to find these minkes but eventually found one that surfaced many times offering the passengers plenty of opportunities to get pictures. An awesome minke not only for this but it lead us to an area where huge flocks of birds were feeding and at least 10-15 scattered, feeding minke whales could be seen. Just wonderful to enjoy all the life the bay had to offer us today. On the way home a frantically feeding pod of about 4 harbour porpoises could be quickly seen but impossible to get any photographs. We enjoyed watching them nonetheless. Wonderful morning whale watching.
- Megan Whittaker
Tour at 09:00
Report from Hafsúlan: After a short while we found an extraordinary pod of white beaked dolphins, since there were at least two calfs among them and both of them were jumping like stung by a bee. Another pod of such was awaiting, again with youngs, but this time it was the adults to jump, apparently for hunting matters. The visibility today was not very good at the beginning, but later a minke whale lead us straight into the most dense cloud of fog to show himself a few more times before everybody, beside the captain and his navigator, was lost in the whiteout on top of scary silent waters.
- Valentin Witek
Birds seen during todays tours: Atlantic puffin, northern gannet, eider duck, common guillemot, black-legged kittiwake, lesser black baked gull, arctic tern, manx shearwater, razorbill, greater blacked gull, glaucous gull.
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. There is little wind and good sea conditions. Hope you will be able to join us on our search for these magnificent animals in their natural environment.
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