Tour at 20:30
Unfortunately we had to cancel the last tour of the day due to rough weather conditions.
Tour at 17:00Report from Hafsúlan: the sun was shining as we headed towards Lundey, one of the Puffin Islands here around Reykjavík. There weren't that many birds in the Island, but we saw some on the ocean around it. As we headed further out we noticed the waves had gotten stronger and also the wind was blowing harder. We searched for a long time and scanned a very big area, but to our disappointment we had no sightings. The life in the bay seemed to have disappeared, there were almost no birds and are fish detector spotted little as no fish and we didn't see any whales. All of our passengers got a complementary ticket, which means that they can come back for free in the next two years, they also get a 15% discount at our shop and our restaurant MAR. We sure hope that our guests will use the tickets and come on a tour with us again soon and that the life in the bay will pick up. This just shows how unpredictable wild life can be and how fast it can change!- Freydís Ósk HjörvarsdóttirTour at 14:00
Report from Elding: When we started our early afternoon tour, the wind had picked up, but the sun was still breaking through the clouds here and there. A short stop at Akurey revealed that there were not too many Atlantic Puffins on the island, but we were happy to see at least a hand full of them flying around the island. Like earlier in the day, it took us very long until we spotted the blow of a Minke Whale, but the animal did not show up a second time so we were not able to show it to our passengers. A bit later, our captain Stefan spotted another Minke, but again it vanished in the depths of faxa bay. We did not give up and were happy to see a Minke Whale surfacing twice very shortly at 12 o'clock. Unfortunately, it was traveling quite fast and showed only very little of itself before it vanished like the others. Our last hope was a big splash in the distance, but when we headed there hoping to find maybe a jumping individual we found nothing but clear water. In the end, we decided to give out complimentary tickets to our passengers, which allow you to come back on one of our future tours within two years. I really hope to see all of you again soon or later so we can show you some more whales next time. Moreover, I hope you enjoyed the curuise any ways, watching all the interesting seabirds and beautiful landscape of faxa bay - Thank you very much for your nice company and the interesting little chats I had with some of you.
- Hendrik SchultzTour at 13:00Report from Hafsúlan: The wind had picked up a bit since this morning but the sun was still shining. we began our tour in Akurey, one of the Puffin Islands were we took a look at the home of the Atlantic Puffins. Unfortunately there weren't many birds there so we just hoped that we would see more further out on the sea. We had to search for almost an hour before we spotted a large flock of feeding sea birds, we kept our eyes around that area and soon we saw a Minke Whale surfacing right in the middle of the group. We found 3 Minke Whales in this area which were all feeding as well as the birds, two of the Minke's even came very close to the boat, maybe 15-20 meters away which ment we heard the sound of the blow perfectly! There seemed to be a lot more life in the bay compared to this morning, more birds, more whales and our fish detector said there was more fish in the bay also! This tour was very enjoyable and we hope that the wild life in Faxaflói bay will keep on growing. - Freydís Ósk Hjörvarsdóttir
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: In the morning, the sun was shining and even though it was a bit windy, sea conditions were very good all in all. On the way out towards faxa bay, we stopped at Aukrey, a puffin island, to see whether the Atlantic Puffins were at their breeding grounds. We spotted quite some birds most of them flying in circles around the boat rather than sitting on the island. When we headed out to find some whales it took us ages of searching and we head to be very patient. While searching for whales, we spotted many interesting seabirds including among others the impressive Northern Gannet and elegant Manx Shearwaters. Then, in the last minute, we had already started to head back to Reykjavik, a large Minke Whale was spotted by some of our passengers - Well spotted guys! We headed towards where it was seen and there it surfaced right in front of us just 20 meters from the boat. We stayed out longer than usual so we could see it surfacing several times in a row. It was a very nice encounter with quite a large individual (must have been between 9 and 11 meters in size) that all of us thoroughly enjoyed - a last minute rescue that once more demonstrated that persistence pays and it is never over until it's over. Comparing it to a soccer game, one of our passengers quiped "it need a German to score in the last minute" referring to the german whale watching guide (me). Well spoken Sir and thank all of you very much for being so patient and such nice passengers around!
- Hendrik Schultz
Tour at 9:00Report from Hafsúlan: The sea conditions were quite good as we headed towards Lundey, one of the Puffin Islands here around Reykjavík, where we saw a lot of Puffins, both on the ocean and flying around. We had to search for a long time with out any sightings until all of a sudden, out of nowhere a Minke Whale breached (jumped out of the ocean and slammed into the surface, making a big splash) only 40-50 meters away from the boat ! it surfaced once more after that but then disappeared. We kept on searching until we found a group of 6-8 White-beaked Dolphins, they were moving quickly and we saw two of them breach around 80 meters away. we got a good look at them but unfortunately they swam away and we couldn't find them again. The dolphins ended the tour four us as our time was up and we had to head back towards the harbour, we searched for more animals on our way back but had no luck. But this tour was a suprising one and the Minke Whale sure came out of nowhere, we can consider ourselfs very lucky to see this behaviour of the Minke.- Freydís Ósk Hjörvarsdóttir
Birds seen on today's tours included: Northern Gannets, Atlantic Puffins, Manx Shearwaters, Eider Ducks, Storm Petrels, Kittiwakes, Black-backed Gulls, Fulmars, Razorbills, Common Guillemots & Black Guillemots