TUESDAY, 04 JULY 2015

Tour at 17:00

Report from Eldey: As we were leaving the harbour in Reykjavik, we already realized the increased wind speed and with it the strong swell, which was not able to shake our optimistic mood for this whale watching tour. After traveling west for a while we spotted a huge amount of birds, mainly flocks of arctic terns, feeding on fish in a large area. We decided to look for cetaceans in the same location. A pod of 4-5 white- beaked dolphins appeared, just as we were getting closer to the flock of birds. They came very close to the boat, and we enjoyed watching them until we moved on looking for other marine mammals. And indeed, we managed to find a humpback whale, which we saw going for several dives as well as putting on a short show when it was head slapping infront of the boat. We stayed as long as we could until we had to turn around to go back. On our way home we encountered another pod of dolphins, with two individuals. They were bow riding for a short while, an incredible experience and amazing to watch as we were traveling home.

- Michaela Buchbauer

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: We boarded as quickly as we could eager to set of in anticipation of seeing some humpback whales. The weather had worsened over the morning tour but not so rough. We had little more wind resulting in more whitecaps, but having narrowed down the area of the two whales we steamed out as fast as we could. It wasn´t long before we came across the first humpback whale, which was Charlie. It was only 200 metres away so we headed towards it, however from the corner of my eye I spotted a second blow and recognized Þröstur. Just as I was about to mention it, he breached spectacularly! And then again and again, we turned the boat and headed towards him. Everyone watched as this enormous animal cleared the water effortlessly. Once alongside it we had maybe 10 minutes alone with the animal before 5 white beaked dolphins showed up! They began to leap and bow ride Þröstur who amazingly rolled, fin slapped, tail lobbed and tail slapped. I put down the mic and let everyone enjoy the enormous claps being made. We stayed there for as long as we could watching the spectacle. Before making our way back to the harbour in a terrific mood!

-Tommy Torrades

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The winds were picking up so everyone was warned that there would be rough seas out there but the winds were warm and there was a humpback out there to be met so off we went. We initially headed towards the same area as before but we soon got a report of another humpback closer to us! When we came to the area a happy humpback whale called Þröstur met us and it showed us a lot of tail work almost as if it were showing of to the passengers. Tail lobbing, tail slapping, reverse tail slapping and fluke-ups were all moves that we got to see along with some lunges and a good show from the pod of 3 white beaked dolphins that were jumping and breaching all around Þröstur. The dolphins were a lot more curious about our boat than Þröstur and even came so close that I couldn't see them from the guiding box but the passengers on the lower deck got quite the view! On our way back the trip only got better when the captain spotted ANOTHER humpback whale, we followed it for a minute but then we were running out of time and had to leave. When we'd gotten quite a bit away the humpback suddenly decided it wasn't shy anymore and breached beautifully behind us to everyones surprise! Despite quite a bit of bumpiness and me breaking the back of the guiding chair this was the best day ever at sea!

- Svala Jónsdóttir

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: The sun was shining and the north-easterly were blowing as warm as they get when we left on this morning tour. The earlier tour had already located two humpback whales so that's where we headed. On our way to that area when we and Hafsúlan met 2 pods of white beaked dolphins decided to join the party and were jumping and breaching all around Hafsúlan. When we finally encountered the two humpback buddies we were amazed. One of them was a lot shyer than the other one and never showed us it's flukes but the second humpback was amazing! It tail lobbed and breached often but it was a big tease by always doing it in a direction so that I just missed the underside of the fluke with my camera. On our way back we encountered giant flocks of birds feeding in every direction but no more whales. Superb tour non the less.

- Svala Jónsdóttir

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The weather was glorious in the harbour. So we assumed that our luck would hold and we were partly right. The sea wasn´t as flat as predicted, still the sun was shining and the wind wasn´t blowing too strongly. We had our eyes set on humpbacks and we moved in the direction where we knew we´d spot them. Alberto soon spotted a large blow in the distance around 6km away. I soon noticed a second blow close to the first. We were in store for an awesome treat. We in fact passed the first of two minke whales but didn´t stay to watch them as we were closing in on the humpbacks. As they neared we soon spotted them only about a meter or two from each other. They began to come quite close to us only 20 metres appearing to be very relaxed on the surface. We identified them as two individuals we´ve had before on our tours as Þröstur and Charlie. Þröstur lifted its large fluke and went for a deep dive, about 30 seconds later only about 50 metres from the boat he erupted from the sea and performed and amazing breach!. Spectacular! After this we were in awe and just gazed thankfully at the two enormous creatures. Sadly with our time at an end we departed for Reykjavik, however along the way we had a pod of 10 breaching white beaked dolphins and another minke whale. This tour didn´t want to end. Simply awesome!

-Tommy Torrades

Birds seen on todays tour include: kittiwakes, puffins, arctic terns, northern fulmars, northern gannets, common guillemots, razorbills, black-backed gulls, black-headed gull, cormorants, eider ducks, arctic skuas and manx shearwaters.