Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: We went out in a beautiful sun straight in the bay to search for the whales. The sea was a bit rocky and it took us 50 minutes before we spotted the first blow, it was probably a Minke Whale but we didn't see it again. Not long time after we spotted two blows of White-Beaked Dolphins, we tried to follow them for a while but it was really difficult to see them with the white caps on the waves and the sun's glare blinding us. Just one or two passengers really saw them so we decided to give a complementary ticket. We saw a lot of Puffins close to Akurey and we enjoyed the sunset and the live music on the way back.
Tour at 17:00
Report from Hafsúlan: this was one of those tours which makes you think they should call it Tricky Whale instead of Minke Whale. It took us about 40-50 minutes and then something big lunged and we saw a massive blow. For a few second we thought it might be something bigger, maybe a Humpback or a Fin Whale, but in all likelyhood it was just a large Minke Whale. We waited but didn't see it again. Then we took off again and soon we saw a snout and then the back once but nothing more. A third popped up behind the boat and was seen 2-3 times but not more. Finally we saw one at one o'clock in front of the boat and were able to see it surface four to five times (it also did a few very nice blows for us) before we had to return to Reykjavik. The tour was saved but by golly did the whales make us work for it!
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: After a very difficult tour this morning, we got so surprised by mother nature and had an amazing tour in the afternoon. We had to sail far out but we found a pod of at least 10 White Beaked Dolphins and then few minutes after the dolphins left, the guide found the first Minke Whale! the dolphins were awesome and separated in smaller groups at one point surfaced really close to the boat 3 to 5 meters on each side of the boat that we could see them swimming under the surface and have a good look at their bodies and colours. Two of them even went under the boat from the left side. In total 3-4 Minke whales entered the bay in the same direction in the middle of the afternoon. We followed one which surfaced 15 meters from the boat several times, to 60 meters, that we could see clearly the extremity of the mouth coming up several times, blows, and even the shadow of the body under the surface letting us know where it will pop up again. This whale was amazing and so easy to follow and surfacing so often, not diving long or deep since it didn't arch the back most of the time clearly. Then we saw thousands of puffins at Lundey island, a very nice place to see this bird surrounded by a beautiful scenery.
Tour at 1300 (Report from Hafsúlan) This tour we stopped at Akurey and went straight out into the bay. Knowing we might have to search a long time we were prepared for a long tour, maybe not for such a long one like this became in the end. We sailed out up to Garður but there we finally found a Minke Whale! It was great to spot after such a long time of searching and we stayed there until there was no time left. Even it was hard to leave the Minke we had to turn back towards Reykjavík, were we arrived with more than one our delay.
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: WE went first to Akurey the puffin islands and saw a lot of these magnificient birds, as well as a shag (cormorants and shags are back in the bay after having bred further further north in the west part of Iceland). Unfortunately we didn't sight any cetaceans later on this tour in this morning. There were not many birds in the bay as well. So complimentary tickets to everyone to come back and have another chance.
Tour at 09:00 (Report from Hafsúlan) We had a great start into the day as there were thousands of Puffins on the island Akurey. It was amazing to see how fast wildlife can change as the week before there were only of few birds around and now they were flying all around us! After this we sailed out into the calm bay and started with the searching. Unfortunately we did not end with the searching until we were back in the harbor of Reykjavík. Even we sailed very far out there was not one sign of a whale in the bay. We hope wildlife will change as it did on the island Akurey and there we will find whales on the next tours. To give all passengers of this tour the chance to find the whales another day, we gave everyone on board a complimentary ticket.
Birds seen on tours today: Arctic terns, Puffins, Shags, Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Arctic Skuas, Eider Ducks, Common Guillemots, Northern Gannets, Manx Shearwaters, Lesser Black Backed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Black Guillemots.