Tour at 1700
Report from Hafsúlan: disheartened by the lack of sightings on the 1300 tour, we bordered for the 1700 tour and decided to try our luck in a different area. Instead of sailing towards Snæfellsnes Peninsula, we decided to head west, alongside Sudurnes Peninsula and towards Gardskagi, not far from Keflavik International Airport and is one of the places in Iceland where you can occasionally see whales from land in high season. Sadly, however, the only cetacean that we saw on this tour was a single Harbour Porpoise. It was as if the Minke Whales had vanished off the face off the Earth, not to mention the Dolphins, Killer Whales and Humpback Whales that had been seen only one day earlier. We in the crew were feeling low but we were helped by the number of passengers who said that they had still enjoyed the trip; since Puffin Island had been nice, there was good sun and weather on the way back to Reykjavik, a beautiful rainbow could be seen above Hvalfjordur fjord and so on. It is just nature and this element of unpredictability makes it more exciting than visiting a zoo. We gave everyone a complimentary ticket and several said they would be using theirs already the following day :)
Tour at 1400
Report from Elding: This afternoon nature just changed very fast no more productive activities in this part of Faxafloi bay, but still great weather and nice scenery around us. We sailed even further away hoping to see something, but unfortunately no sighting at all except a lot of birds, Arctic Terns, Gannets, Manx Shearwaters, Fulmars, Guillemots, Puffins, Arctic Skuas, a Great Skua, Gulls. All passengers got a complimentary ticket and can come back in the next two years.
Tour at 1300
Report from Hafsúlan: remembering the narrow-escape we had had from a bad-sighting tour earlier in the morning, we hoped that this one would be better but it turned out that after the outstanding day yesterday, the whales had decided to take a break. We sailed out and there were a total of eight crew eyes on constant outlook (the captain, the guide and then two researchers as well as others from the crew from time to time) but the only Minke Whales we saw (1-3) were a long distance away and had vanished into the deep water by the time we had come closer. We saw a few Harbour Porpoises once or twice on this tour but they did not make up for the lack of their larger cousins. A disappointing tour to crew and passengers alike, but this is nature and our passengers are almost always very understanding of this fact. Of course we gave all passengers onboard complimentary tickets which they can use within the next two years.
Tour at 1000
Report from Elding: This morning, we went not that far before finding our first Minke Whale, or should I say before the minke whale found us since it just popped out on the left side of the boat at less than 10 meters! People screamed pointing at it. We found later another Minke and what a good one! Stayed with us for quite a while and chilled out, very comfortably close to the boat, even produced some bubbles under the water which came to the surface in line. We also started to see Harbour Porpoises, we didnt realise directly that it was a huge pod around 100 animals maybe more, surrounding the boat and our minke whale. Amazing to see them close and also swimming and surfacing very fast. A third Minke Whale appeared swimming in the other direction than us and the nice Minke we were staying with just surprising us. Great tour!
Tour at 0900
Report from Hafsúlan: we had excellent weather as we left the harbour. Due to tide conditions we decided to leave Puffin Island until on the way back and head straight out to the whales. It took us about an hour before we got on their trail and the first Minke Whale popped up. However it went for a deep dive after one sighting and same went for the next Minke we saw. The occasional Harbour Porpoise came for a visit throughout the tour but otherwise there was an odd feeling of that the Minkes had better things to do today than to entertain us. However, about twenty minutes before we knew we would have to leave for home, the action began and we saw at least two further whales reasonably close to the boat, as well as White-beaked Dolphins (5-10) that came for a visit just at the end. It would have been nice to have them a bit sooner into the trip but they're always welcome no matter how short their visit has to be.