Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: It was still a bit raining when we headed out into the bay for our midnight tour. After 40 minutes of searching, we spotted the first Minke Whale surfacing 2-3 times next to us but we saw splashes in a short distance, most likely from White Beaked Dolphins so we headed towards them and that was the best decision ever. This pod of White Beaked Dolphins put on a show we will never forget, they played with the boat like never seen before. It was a pod of maybe 10-15 individuals and they also had a calf with them that was exteremly playful. The whole boat was totally amazed when one Dolphin started to jump very high out of the water, spinning whilst jumping, so we could see the whole belly, right next to the boat, not more than 2 meters away at least 7 times as if he was trained!! We stayed with the Dolphins the whole tour they just kept on jumping and swimming under the boat, it was an epic moment!
-Lisa Hofmann
Tour at 17:00
Report from Hafsúlan: We headed out from Reykjavík. The sea was calmer than before, but the rain continued. We headed out to sea towards the area that we have been seeing the whales today. There was quite a lot of fog so we couldn't see a lot of the mountains surrounding us, however the sea became quite calm and it was extremely calm out at sea. We arrived at the area from earlier today and sure enough we found our first Minke Whale. This whale was traveling quite slowly, but came up quite a few times allowing us to see it. We decided to head on our way and find another whale, because we had seen at least two off in the distance. Soon there were at least three Minke whales in the same area surfacing every once in a while and some just about 10 meters from the boat. We continued on our way following about two minkes and soon saw a large flock of birds in the distance. There were Northern Gannets, Lesser Black Backed Gulls and Arctic Terns. We saw a minke whale appear from underneath the birds and right as we arrived this whale surfaced and rolled on its side showing its white belly and fin. It was quite beautiful. The whale surfaced a few times more before leaving us. We got close to the flock of birds who were feeding on a black area of the sea. As we got closer this area revealed itself to be a giant school of sandeels. These fish were literally pour out on to the surface of the sea and we could see their silvery bodies as they came into the air and were picked up by various birds. We headed on our way back to the harbour, but first stopped at Akurey to see some puffins flying around and sitting in the sea in front of their homes.
-Taylor Theódór
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: The first stop today was Akurey, the Puffin Island where we visited "The Penguins of the North". A few of them were home flying around so we stopped for a few minutes. We headed out in the bay towards the area where we saw the whales earlier and after 30 minutes of sailing we met the first Minke Whale. It was quite elusive so we decided to keep going and after a while we met "Humpy" again, the Minke Whale we´ve seen here in the bay since 2011, what a nice surprise. We stayed with Humpy for a while and got a close look at him, but kept going when he decided to head away from us. We saw loads of Northern Gannets in between, diving into the water which was very nice. After 10 minutes we found another Minke Whale feeding right under a flock of birds we came very close, turned off the engine and the show began. This Minke was actively feeding on the water surface, coming high out of the water, rolling around so we managed to see the fluke, it was simply stunning! Everyone was smiling on the way back, lovely tour.
-Lisa Hofmann
Tour at 13:00
Report from Hafsúlan: We headed out from Reykjavík and the waves were much better than this morning, however it had started to rain a little bit. We stopped by Akurey to see the Puffins and were lucky to see several flying by and into their burrows. We headed out to sea towards the area that we had seen some whales this morning. As we got farther out the bird life began to become more and more distinctive and the Lesser Black Backed Gulls and Northern Gannets were feeding in large flocks. We followed these large flocks and sure enough two Minke Whales. They appeared right underneath the flock of birds. They continued to come up quite often as they fed on the large amount of food that seemed to be in that area. Then all of the sudden one Minke Whale came up right underneath the birds rolled on its side allowing us to see its belly and almost waved at us with its fin. It was quite a unique experience to see this. Through out the trip we saw this twice from two different whales. We continued on our way after having seen these two or three minkes surface many times. We found a large flock of Northern gannets and their young diving into the ocean and fishing. There must have been around 80-100 of them diving into the water which was quite a sight. We headed back to the harbour and everyone was quite content despite the rainy weather.
-Taylor Theódór
Tour at 10.00
Report from Elding: It was a rainy morning when we headed straight out into the bay. It took us about 30 minutes before we spotted the first Minke Whale. It surfaced a few times very close to the boat but than disappeared. We also saw 3 other Minkes travelling away in a distance but we couldn´t see them anymore so we kept on searching. We had to be very patient and even though there were a lot of sea birds feeding in flocks on the water surface, we couldn´t spot any whales. After quite a while of searching we found another Minke Whale and stayed a little while with him before we had to go back to Reykjavík. We still wanted to visit Akurey, the Puffin Island. There were some Puffins flying around and we could get a good look at their beautiful coloured beak before we headed home.
-Lisa Hofmann
Tour at 9:00
Report from Hafsúlan: We headed out from Reykjavík and the wind was quite strong so our passengers were all prepared for some chilly weather and some waves. Luckily they had their overalls which are provided on board. We sailed out to sea and it wasn't long before we spotted a Harbour Porpoise. Unfortunately these animals are very shy and this one seemed to vanish quickly. We continued on our way passing Puffins, Arctic Terns, Lesser-Black Backed Gulls and Northern Gannets. We eventually saw a few large flocks of birds feeding on the water and decided to keep a close eye on these birds knowing that their was most likely food there and maybe even some whales. The northern gannets began to dive into the water which is always spectacular. Sure enough right from under one of these flocks of birds a Minke Whale appeared. We continued to see this beautiful creature come to the surface as it fed and gave off its blow. We got to see the minke surface around 10 times and there were probably two different individuals who made an appearance. The weather was quite wavy and after having seen the whales quite well we headed towards Lundey (Puffin Island). We saw several Puffins flying around the island and sitting outside their burrows. Despite the windy and wavy weather we had a very successful trip.
-Taylor Theódór