TUESDAY, 14 JULY 2015

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: Light rain and a cloudy sky started this midnight whale watching tour. When we got further out in the bay we had a flat sea and the rain seemed to staying away. After 45 minutes of sailing we spotted a big splash in the horizon... This could only mean one thing and no surprise when we got closer. A humpback whale! We had found a large humpback whale and it was now busy feeding. It surfaced once or twice before going for deeper dives. We spent a long time with this majestic animal. In our rush to get to the whale we sailed passed a jumping white-beaked dolphin. But we would see more dolphins. On our way back we found a pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins. Very curious animals that started following us, bowriding! We couldn't´t have asked for a better ending with dolphins following us on our way back to Reykjavik harbour, with the nice live music performed by the awesome Bjarni down in the saloon. Magical midnight tour!

- Marcus Bergström 

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The wind had picked up quite a bit from this morning but the sea conditions were still pretty good. We had sailed for some time before the RIB boats came across some white-beaked dolphins. This made us very happy as we hadn't seen any dolphins on the previous tours. These dolphins were moving pretty slowly which made it easy for passengers to take photographs. We stayed with this pod for a while until they moved on so we decided it was time to go look for other species. We encountered a minke whale and another pod of white-beaked dolphins on the same time in front of the boat which was great. This was our last encounter of the day but still great fun being out there and seeing these animals.

-Katrín Björnsdóttir

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: This afternoon conditions were slightly rainier but as we got further out the rain stopped and the winds died down to almost nothing, perfect conditions for whale watching. Our first cetacean was spotted thirty minutes after leaving the harbor as we saw the black back and dorsal fin of a minke whale! We got a few good looks at this individual but it was quite elusive so we didn't stay too long and soon headed further out. Around twenty minutes later the the sea erupted on our left side with a pod of 10-20 white-beaked dolphins  breaching again and again. This was a large pod of dolphins feeding and we had an awesome display with the dolphins breaching, leaping and interacting with the boat. The dolphins were all around us for quite some time, giving us a good opportunity to get pictures and enjoy these awesome creatures. We headed back to Reykjavik quite happy and satisfied after this encounter but as we neared the harbor a minke whale surfaced right in front of us three times! A fantastic end to an already great tour.

-Ívar Eli Sveinsson

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We started this afternoon tour also with light rain and an overcast sky but the sea conditions were still pretty good. After only 20 min we spotted the first minke whale. It surfaced a few times in a row before it went for a dive, and then we saw it two more times. But it was difficult to follow so we decided to move on. The second minke whale was spotted by our Captain Björn, and then it surfaced more than 800 m away from our boat, so we tried to find another minke whale that was less shy. Finally, we managed to get a good look at the third minke whale of this tour. We could stay with it for a while and it surfaced a few times only about 50 m in front of us. On the way back, when we were already close to the harbour, we spotted a fourth minke whale. This individual suddenly popped up only 100 m away from us. So we decided to stay, and could watch it a few more times before we continued to head to the harbour. 

- Hanna Michel

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: This morning conditions were very good for whale watching with calm seas and a light breeze from the north east. We headed out onto Faxa bay and quite quickly found our first cetacean of the tour. It was a minke whale that swam slowly along, giving us a good look at it. The individual even surfaced three times just 50 metres away from the boat, providing an excellent opportunity for photos. We stayed with this minke for a while and then headed further out to search more of the bay. It wasn't long until we saw a second minke whale that behaved much like the first, also surfacing very close to the boat. Two good encounters so far and we decided to start heading back towards Reykjavík as we were running out of time. Just as we turned back a pod of around 5-7 white-beaked dolphins surfaced quite close to us and swam very slowly around the boat. An excellent end to the tour!

-Ívar Elí Sveinsson

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Another rainy day in Reykjavík but still a full boat of passengers ready to see some wildlife. The conditions for whale watching were just great, calm sea that made it easy to spot the cetaceans. We only sailed for about 30 minutes before we encountered our first species. A minke whale was spotted in few hundreds meters from the boat. We decided to stop the boat and wait for this individual to surface again. That definitely paid off because this individual came closer to the boat and popped up several times just few meters from the boat along with some harbour porpoises. This area was full of wildlife with many bird species feeding on the same area. We then headed further out and encountered two more pods of harbour porpoises as well as another minke whale. 

-Katrín Björnsdóttir

Bird species seen on today's tours include: northern gannets, northern fulmars, kittiwakes, common guillemots, puffins, arctic skuas, arctic terns and lesser black-backed gulls.