Tour at 17:00Report from Hafsúlan: The tour started off pretty slow, as we only saw one Harbour Porpoise as we were heading out and for around 40 minutes there was no sighting. But finally we saw our first dorsal fin! It was a Minke Whale that surfaced around 50 meters away from the boat, the animal surfaced a couple of times before it swam away, but instead another one surfaced close to us and we got a good look at it! After having a good look at the Minke Whales we decided to sail further and see if we would find something else, and indeed we did! after about 50 minutes sailing and hope was slipping away because of the time, we saw 4 dorsal fins moving very quickly, it was a pod of 10-15 White-Beaked Dolphins in hunting action. They swam very close to the boat and we could see the whole body under the surface. While we were enjoying the present of the dolphins we could see around 4 Minke Whales surfacing around us and birds hunting. On our way back to the harbour we stopped at Akurey, the Puffin Island, and it was crowded with birds, flying over the island, sitting on the ocean and the island, it was an amazing ending to a great tour!- Freydís Ósk
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: Today's 2 o'clock tour started out with Harbour porpoises spotted by a passenger. Those surfaced a few times relatively close to the boat but turned out to be quite elusive. Then along came Minke Whales which surfaced only very rarely and did not seem to be in the mood for whalewatching. After we had headed back to the puffin islands finally we saw a pod of White-beaked dolphins. They were feeding very closely to the surface and came up very frequently and a few times very close to the boat. There were at least ten of them all around us and they did not seem to mind our company at all. Finally we had to leave the dolphins and head to Akurey the puffin island. There were quite a few puffins sitting on the sea by the island. We saw Kittiwakes, all kinds of Seagulls and Fulmars, Arctic terns and Eider ducks as well. A fun tour with all kinds of sightings on a calm and partly sunny Faxaflói bay!
-Arnór Tumi
Tour at 13:00
Report from Hafsúlan: This afternoon was quite fun. We left Reykjavík harbour and headed straight out across the smooth sea to see if we could find some beautiful whales. On our way out our passengers all spotted Harbour Porpoises who seemed to follow our boat as we went farther out to sea. We were not that far out when our first Minke Whale appeared about 100 meters away with the beautiful Akrafjall in the background. We headed towards the whale and we were able to see it surface several times before going down for a deep dive. We decided to continue our way further out to sea, but did not make it too far when about three Minke Whales appeared in several directions. These whales were a bit more lively and we got to see their blows and hear them. One particular whale was quite curious and came right next to the boat. This whale surfaced to the right of the boat, traveled underneath the boat and then surfaced on the left side of the boat and let out a large blow. We all got to see the whale descend down under the water with its white fins sinking into the blue water. On our way back to shore we saw several more and a large flock of birds (Arctic Skuas, Manx shearwaters, Puffins, Lesser black-backed gulls, and fulmars). Another Minke Whale surfaced right under these birds who were feeding. We stopped by puffin island on our way home and saw lots of cute little puffins. This tour was quite exciting and a lovely way to spend the afternoon.
-Taylor Theodór
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: Little did we know what awaited us this morning as we sailed out onto a relatively calm bay. We started at Akurey the puffin island where there were lots of puffins and other birds, among them an Oystercatcher. After having stopped a while there we began our search for whales and soon found Minke Whales swimming around slowly but spread over quite a large area. As we heard reports of Humpback Whales over the radio we decided to leave the Minkes and go further. And indeed, we found a family of Humpback Whales, two adults with a young one. They came up frequently blowing loudly out of their blow holes for us to hear. A few times they came very close to the boat and they seemed to be quite curious about us. On the way back we spotted a few Harbour porpoises and one Minke whale. It was a fantastic tour where we got to experience an amazing proximity to these huge animals!
Tour at 09:00
Report from Hafsúlan: This morning, we were facing calm sea conditions with just a gentle breeze blowing when we started our whale watching tour. On our way out, we stopped at Akurey, one of the puffin islands, to have a closer look at the Atlantic Puffins that are breeding on this island in the summer. There were many birds around this morning, flying in groups above the island and also sitting on the water in front of Akurey. After enjoying the "clowns of the sea" we traveled further out faxa bay hoping to sea some whales. It took us a bit of patience, but after about 40 minutes of sailing we spotted a first blink of a Minke Whale's dorsal fin. As we came closer, we saw it surfacing several times, before it went for a longer dive. However, within the next minutes, we saw three more Minke Whales surfacing in a radius of 150 meters and enjoyed some of them as. Inbetween, we saw Harbour Porpoises surfacing here and there, some of them being just 10 to 15 meters from our boat. It was very nice to see these shy creatures that close. It was the cetaceans, seabirds and positive atmosphere on the boat that made this morning a wonderful time at sea.
- Hendrik Schultz
Birds seen on today's tours include: Greater black backed gulls, Fulmars, Puffins, Arctic terns, Northern Gannets, Common guillemots, Oystercatchers, Kittiwakes and Arctic skuas