Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: The wind had picked up quite a bit compared to the morning when we sailed out this afternoon and we could really experience the diversity of the Icelandic weather. At the beginning it was sunny and then soon it started raining a bit, but this did not stop us from staying outside, wrapped in one of our comfy overalls. After about half an hour of sailing we encountered a minke whale fairly close to the boat and could see it surfacing really well for about four times, before we decided to head further out in search for more wildlife. We saw many different sea birds, but no cetaceans. Then, when it was time for us to turn around, we saw it; big splashes in the distance closer to Reykjavik! First we thought it might be a humpback whale, however it turned out to be a breaching minke whale. And it did not only breach one time, we could see it breaching seven times. Incredible! Everybody was at awe being able to witness such a rare and unbelievable sighting. Then it was time for us to sail back to Reykjavik. What a fantastic minke encounter this afternoon.
- Barbara Neubarth
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: It was a slightly overcast day, with a little swell and some fairly strong winds but this did not put a dampener on the trip. Some sun broke through the clouds to reveal a lovely blue sky. As the conditions were fairly difficult for spotting cetaceans we spent a long time searching for animals. However, we were kept entertained by the beautiful bird life we had surrounding us, including the fulmars, arctic terns and the playful puffin. We were even able to witness a fantastic air battle between the arctic skua and a kittiwake. The arctic skua is a kleptoparacite which means it does not forage itself but instead relies on other birds to capture the fish and then it take it from them. Elding, one of our sister boats radioed in reporting they had spotted a minke whale, so we headed over to check it out. Once a lot closer this animal came up in a beautiful surface sequence just 75 meters from the boat. It then arched its back and went for a deeper dive. After only a few minutes under the surface it resurfaced just 80 meters away again in a lovely sequence heading towards the whale fjord. After following this animal for a fair few minutes it was then time to head for home and although the winds were strong it was pleasantly warm.
- Tess Hudson
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: This morning was quite warm to Iceland standards and the day looked pretty promising after the last sightings from days before. The search was hard and constant. Also a lot of puffins and arctic terns were flying around in the bay making our trip very lovely. The sailing was actually a lot of fun and some northern fulmars were accompanying us for about 10 minutes, right next to the boat! also the sea conditions were good, not perfect but good. We got a call from Eldey (one of our whale-watching boats) saying that they had seen some cetaceans far away in the bay. We headed for that direction in search for the lovely animals. After 30 minutes of search in that area we could not find any, unfortunately. As we say on our tours: this is wildlife and sometimes they just do not want to show themselves to us. As we were running out of time we headed back to the harbour. As we did not see any cetaceans on this tour we gave out complimentary tickets for those who wanted to have one. Those tickets are valid within two years! I hope to see the passengers again on one of our tours and give it another try! After all, it was a nice tour with lovely playful birds and beautiful light in the bay.
- Jorge Pascual
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: It had to be expected, beautiful weather in Faxa Bay could not last forever ! When we left Reykjavik harbour, the sky was fully covered with grey clouds but the temperature was surprisingly warm. This made the first hour of our trip enjoyable ! When we were far away from land, we spotted water splashes in the distance, a cetacean was leaping over there ! As we got closer to the source of this frenzy, wind picked up seriously and started to bite us to the bone, making the overall useful. So be it ! It did not prevent us from having a good encounter with a pod of 4-6 white beaked dolphins ! They were keeping their distance for a while, but eventually they became inquisitive of the boat and went close to us on several occasions. It was exciting to follow their white pattern underwater as they went below our vessel ! They then disappeared for a while, only to resurface few minutes later. Their behaviour clearly changed, this time they were surfacing at a high pace and were changing directions all the time. We believe that those dolphins started to feed ! Some of them were also leaping out of the water, to our delight. Eventually we ran out of time, so we headed back toward Reykjavik. The wind was blowing even stronger, but the sea surface was calm, which was perfect for a quiet sailing.
- Guillaume Calcagni
Bird species seen on today's tour include: kittiwake, arctic tern, atlantic puffin, common guillemot, greater black-backed gull, arctic skua, northern gannet, northern fulmar
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. It´s fully clouded but little wind. There could be some movement on the boat out on Faxabay.
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