Tour at 20:30
Report from Hafsulan: What an evening that we have enjoyed! Blue skies, sun shinning, a perfect combination to experiment the magic of the midnight sun in Iceland. But not only sun was cheering us up, thousands of birds were feeding actively all along the bay in small and big groups and the most surprising thing was that among them a lot of minke whales were feeding too in an endless cycle. What we have to highlight from the tour is not the quantity of the whales (more than 4-5 at least!) but the quality because a tiny and brave calf came around the boat over and over so we could take a good look at this beautiful animal. With our hearths full of energy and positivism, we returned to the harbour with the music of our trouvadour making the experience even more magical.
-Rodrigo A. Martinez Catalan
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: This afternoon we had to put on some extra sunscreen as the sun was coming out from the clouds. It was still rather windy with the wind blowing from the north-west making it very cold. The first part of the tour was difficult as we saw 2 different minke whales but they only surfaced once for us. They were being sneaky minkes. There were a lot of seabirds feeding all around but we did not see any whales around. Later on during the tour we turned around and saw a big splash in the distance. It was a breaching minke! It was jumping out of the water for a good 15 minutes before it got tired and swam away. Truly a good end to our sunny tour.
-Kolbrún Þóra Sverrisdóttir
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: Today we set out from the harbour during dry and sometimes even sunny weather and winds were not too strong either. We had to sail rather far into the bay to find our first minke whale for the tour. However, this individual was showing an elusive behaviour. The second minke for the tour surfaced a few more times, but then it was also gone. Towards the end we came across some flocks of feeding seabirds and this is where we found 3 more minke whales, including a mother and a calve, which came very close to the bow of the boat. After this enjoyable encounter we sailed back to the harbour, accompanied by sunshine.
-Diana Besel
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: Afternoon was busy for us as more the usual passengers decided to join this tour that why we headed out on two vessels. Despite in general sunny day this particular tour was again sailing under clouds but we had some luck with the weather when wind dropped. It takes around an hour till we saw huge flock of birds and we had first sightings of cetaceans. They were minke whales, 4 of them, feeding actively over big fish balls which we could see through the water surface. It was exciting to watch this small but agile whales just swimming under surface while they were attacking fish and having as a background noisy sea birds trying to catch some leftovers. It was one special individual which surface couple times less than 10 m from our boat giving us excellent view at almost full body of this whale.
- Ewa
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: Today the wind picked up a bit from the north-northwest but we enjoyed very nice sunny moments in the bay, a rarity during the last month. With our batteries fully charged due to the delicious sun we sought along Faxafloi wondering where our beloved cetaceans were. After a long search, we finally got them and all of them in the same area. First, we spotted two pods of white-beaked dolphins with around 8-10 individuals, there were very curious calves within the group and some of them came to check us out. Later on, around 3-4 minke whales were seen around us mainly feeding under a fierce avian force ready to take advantage of the whale´s left-overs while they were herding fish close to the surface. The way back was enjoyable as we were sailing with the waves under a shy but rewarding sun.
-Rodrigo A. Martinez Catalan
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: We had a windy morning today but the sun was out so we were happy. The first sighting of the day was a pod of 8 white-beaked dolphins. They were very active, jumping out of the water and playing together. We were able to travel slowly with them as they were playing. After some time we left them to go look for something else. As we were sailing a minke whale surfaced right by the boat, so we got a super close look at it. It was a good tour in the sun.
-Kolbrún Þóra Sverrisdóttir
Birds seen during our tours: eider duck, northern fulmar, atlantic puffin, common guillemot, black guillemot, razorbill, manx shearwater, herring gull, black-headed gull, great black-backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, arctic skua, great skua, northern gannet, arctic tern, black-legged kittiwake.
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. Sea conditions are are favorable but there could always be some movement on the boat and we do have free seasickness tablets at the office. Hope you are able to join us on our search for these magnificent animals in their natural environment.
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