Tour at 20:30
Report from Eldey: The sun continued to be shining for us this evening, so we sailed out into the quite choppy sea under a blue sky. Even though the wind made it a little bit chilly, most of our passengers stayed outside and made good use of our overalls. After about 50 minutes of sailing we spotted our first blow and soon after, our first dorsal fin of a humpback whale. It changed directions quite frequently and a lot of birds were around so we thought the humpback was likely feeding. All of a sudden it showed us a tail-slap and we were amazed by its power. We stayed with this humpback for a while till a big splash less than a kilometer away caught our attention. On our way to the splash we saw another humpback whale breaching 2 times in the distance and when we arrived we were 'greeted' with a pec-slap and everybody could see how long these flippers can grow. We watched this humpback pec-slapping and surfacing multiple times, before we set out to search for more wildlife. Unfortunately we did not see any other cetaceans, but the beautiful sunset and the great humpbacks we saw, made sure we were sailing back to Reykjavik happy and satisfied.
- Barbara Neubarth
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: The wind had picked up a bit more since the last trip so we had a quite choppy ride on the ways on our way out in the bay. We spotted our first blow from a humpback whale just after 30 minutes and had a good sightings with this individual. More humpback whales were to follow, in total 5 on this tour. The next one we spotted in the distance and started to move closer. We lost track of that humpback but instead we found another one breaching closer to us! It kept doing the same behaviour for quite some time: surfacing 4-6 times, went down for a deep dive and then come up in a spectacular breach! It also started to wave with its long flippers, the pectoral fins. We had a great time with this humpback. The next humpback we encounter we recognised from the white and black patterns of the fluke, it was Picasso who was joing us this sunny evening. He did also breach for us but not so many times as the previous humpback. Just as we were to had back home again and had turned the boat, Picasso almost jumped out with his whole body out of the sea. What a breach! We couldn't go home yet after this show so we sticked around for another minute hoping that Picasso would breach again. Unfortunately he didn't but showed his fluke a couple of more times instead. Two minke whales were also spotted on this tour, but bith of them were very elusive and it was only the crew and a couple of passengers that spotted them. But I think the passengers weren't too sad about it since the humpback whales gave us wonderful shows that we will always remember!
- Johanna Bergman
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: A pharaonic sun welcomed us again on this trip, yet wind had picked up quite a bit. We still benefited from excellent visibility and great luminous landscape, but few white caps at the surface of the water were getting in the way of our spotting and we were shaken a little bit. Nonetheless, what a great tour we had ! The view was enjoyable, and after traveling further and further away for a while, we met boats that had found a humpback whale ! It was obviously resting, surfacing regularly and calmly, barely moving forward or changing direction. This allowed us to have close looks, and as this individual was already followed by few boats before us, we decided to leave it alone and look for something else. We traveled about 20 minutes more and found a second humpback. Its behavior was clearly different from the first one, moving fast and traveling over long distances. By sticking with this whale, we could have great sights at the underside of its fluke, on the numerous occasions it went for a deep dive. My personal highlight was the legendary "rainblow", a rainbow in a blow, it was displaying every time it was breathing ! After fully enjoying this whale, we met a third one that displayed a massive tail-lob twice ! Amazed and satisfied, we headed home. On the way back, some lucky passengers could have glimpses of a leaping white-beaked dolphin that quickly disappeared. Great weather, great tour, hopefully plenty of happiness for everybody !
- Guillaume Calcagni
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: What an incredible day in Faxaflói! After the tour in the morning we thought that we saw everything already, what of course the wildlife is always bringing surprises to the ones that are visiting the nature. We could enjoy 3 different individuals of humpback whale during the tour. The first one was tail slapping for about 5 minutes, even upside down. Then the animal started to roll and flipper slapping against the water. Such an amazing display. The second individual gave us a spectacular view of its fluke going for deep dives few times. And the last individual was resting in the area, logging (floating at the surface) for several minutes. The sunny sky helped us to be outside without the need of any overall. Great seabirds feeding in the Bay including northern gannets and Manx shearwaters.
- Alejandro García
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: It was a sunny morning when we left the harbour and we were able to enjoy the nice weather while we sailed out. We didn't even need to use the overalls. We had heard about a humpback whale so we went straight there and it was traveling very slowly before logging at the surface. Since it was resting we decided not to disturb it and go take a look at another humpback whale in the area. That turned out to be Cheezel and it was staying at the surface for us before showing us its beautiful fluke a couple of times. It had been diving for a couple of minutes when it suddenly breached four times! Then it started traveling towards a large amount of fish that we could see just below the surface and started lunge feeding at the surface! It even swam towards us and looked some passengers that were standing in the bowel of the boat in the eyes as it raised its head out of the water before swimming under the boat. Unfortunately we were out of time so we had to head back to the harbour but on our way back we spotted two more humpbacks and a minke whale. An awesome tour with Cheezel the humpback whale breaching and lunge feeding.
-Bryndís Ösp
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: We headed out with amazing weather, very sunny and no waves. After half an hour we spotted a humpback whale in the distance, we headed over and watched the animal surface for a couple of times. We spotted a second humpback, this animal tail lobbed twice when we saw a humpback whale lunge feeding in the distance. We headed over and it turned out to be two humpback whales lunge feeding in the same area. A few times they lunged out of the water right next to each other! We have not seen anything like this during this summer. The animals just kept on going and we were able to see the inside of their mouths and the baleen plates. It was spectacular! Everyone was very sad that we had to leave the animals to head back to Reykjavik.
-Anouk
Bird species seen on today's tour: atlantic puffin, manx shearwater, arctic skua,, great skua, kittiwake, northern gannet, lesser black-backed gull, northern fulmar, common guillemot, arctic tern
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the old harbor in Reykjavík. It is a very lovely day with calm seas and sunshine.
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