Tour at 17:00
Report from Hafsúlan: After having stopped at Engey, the puffin island we decided to try our luck in Hvalfjörður this time in light of the lack of sightings from earlier today. We sailed there but barely saw a bird. So we headed towards Akranes, then we headed west and ended up close to the Reykjanes peninsula but nothing was seen. Even most of the birds seemed to have left. Apparently there was not much to eat in the bay this afternoon, and maybe the whales and the birds moved elsewhere, where there was more food to be found. To look at the bright side, the weather had become much nicer and the winds were much calmer. But of course, the lack of wildlife today was a huge disappointment. We offered our passengers complementary tickets and hope to see them again. Better luck next time!
-Arnór Tumi
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: This afternoon conditions looked good when we sailed out from Reykjavik harbor and we began by visiting the small and cute puffins at Engey. After visiting the puffins we then headed further out onto Faxa bay to begin our search. We went very far out this time and searched an extremely large area this time around in our efforts to find the whales. Unfortunately though, the weather conditions worsened as the day wore on but despite this the passengers simply put on warmer clothes and stayed outside helping to search for whales. But despite this herculean effort we did not spot any whales in spite of our exhausting search of the bay. Like we always do when we see nothing on a tour we gave our passengers a complimentary ticket which is a ticket valid for two years and allows them to join any of our whale watching tours. It also provides a discount to our restaurant Mar and in our gift shop in Fífill. A small compensation for those on the tour with me today who I want to thank for their resilience and patience in our search today.
-Ívar Elí Sveinsson
Tour at 13:00
Report from Hafsúlan: Again, we started the tour at Engey. This time there were fewer puffins than this morning but still plenty of them for us to observe. We sailed out hoping to find the feeding gannets from this morning along with some feeding minke whales. No luck there. We sailed through a large area this afternoon but did not see a single whale! A gannet and a fulmar here and there but that was it. How very disappointing. The passengers were great about it, most of them stayed outside scanning the ocean surface but it seemed like the food that had been there in the morning was all gone. What a shame! But that's life, and that's wildlife. Complementary tickets were given out and nothing to do but keep looking and hope that the whales come back!
-Arnór Tumi
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: Today was quite cloudy with winds gusting from the east and slight rain. Despite these conditions we headed out today with high hope as whales don't often seem to mind the weather all that much. To begin with we visited Engey and spotted quite a few puffins sitting on its rocky cliffs and out on the sea. Then we sailed onwardfor about thirty minutes until we reached our main whale watching area. When we had just reached our whale watching area I heard a loud splash and turned around to fin a fluke print from a Minke whale right next to the boat. It had surfaced very quickly and was swimming fast out towards the open sea. After that we slowed down and had a good look around in that area. Soon we had spotted birds and after some minutes of tense waiting a fin was spotted behind us and the second minke whale was found! We then found about 3 more minkes in that area and got a very good look at one as he surfaced very close to our right side. A few more minkes later and so many Gannets diving it looked like hail we headed home after a very good tour!
-Ívar Elí Sveinsson
Tour at 09:00
Report from Hafsúlan: It was quite windy this morning. We started at the puffin island Engey and found plenty of puffins there. After we left Engey, we soon found lots of feeding northern gannets. Here and there we would find huge groups of these big, majestic birds diving into the water for food! Among them were many young gannets. They were at least a hundred of them on the bay today. We were keeping a good eye on these feeding gannets but despite there being lots of food we were having a hard time finding whales. At one point a minke whale surfaced right next to one flock of gannets. It was swimming fast. It came up two more times but then we did not see it again. We headed further and found more flocks of gannets but surprisingly, there were no whales to be seen. Very strange indeed to have such an amount of birds with so few whale sightings. Finally, we had to head back to Reykjavík but on the way there, we met our sister vessel Elding. They claimed to have seen a minke whale so we hung around. We were about to give up when we finally saw it. And not only one, but two minke whales surfacing a few times quite close to us. After that we really had to go back as we were running far too late. Windy tour with few whale sightings but crowded with northern gannets!
-Arnór Tumi
Birds seen on todays tour include: Gannet, Arctic Tern, Razorbill, Guillemot, Puffin, Kittiwake, Fulmar, Great Skua, Lesser and Greater Black-backed Gulls.