Tour at 1700
Report from Elding: As the wind was increasing in Faxaflói Bay and the sea conditions got worse during the afternoon we decided to move one of our vessels to Sandgerði a harbor on the other side of the Reykjanes peninsular. There we got a shelter from land and we hoped to have better sightings in this area. Once we headed out a bit it turned out to be the right decision as we spotted a big blow far away. Coming closer we found a slowly traveling Humpback Whale. It was an incredible big individual that surfaced many times. We still had to go a long way because we planned to end the tour in Grindavík another small harbor, where our coach was waiting for us to bring us back to Reykjavík. We searched for a while in a greater area until some passengers shouted "jumping dolphins at nine o'clock"! It was a pod of 5+ White Beaked Dolphins jumping completely out of the water, spinning their bodies in the air! When we came closer they started to bow ride next to the boat, dived under us and we could see their whole bodies not more than 2 meters away!!! What a great show! As the time was running out we headed on but we were "interrupted" soon again. There was something surfacing in the water what we were not sure about. It was the great mystery of the tour but we are very sure it was a Basking Shark, as a passenger got a picture of the dorsal fin, that we studied on our way home. Just five minutes before we entered the harbor of Gríndavík we got another great surprise. Suddenly there were Orcas surfacing in front of the boat!! WOW!! At least it were two male and one female Orca that we could see surfacing around us! What a tour with such amazing sightings that surprised us all! In the end of the day we definitely knew that it was worth to go out into a different area!!! A wonderful end of a long day with a difficult start.
Tour at 1400
Cancelled due to rough conditions in Faxaflói bay.
Tour at 1300
Report from Hafsúlan: It was calm sailing out into the bay as we were sailing with the swells but rougher coming back when sailing into the wind and swell. It was quite a disappointing tour with regards to not seeing any whales except once when we got a brief glimpse of a dorsal fin and the blow of a whale but that was it. We saw many seabirds including gannets, puffins, seagulls and others (as mentioned below) but no marine mammals. It was however a beautiful, clear sunny day and you could see the stunning scenery surrounding Faxaflói Bay. Complimentary tickets were given to passengers in the hope they return with better luck.
Tour at 1000
Report from Elding We already knew that it might be a little bit choppy today, when we headed out into Faxafloi Bay. The wind picked up compared to the day before but still the sun was friendly shining. After we left Reykjavik older harbor we stopped at the Puffin colony Akurey to see our favorite birds. It was a pleasure to see that they are getting more and more every day and some of them were already sitting on the island in front of the earth tunnels! After this good start in the day we headed further out into the windy bay. We already sailed for a while until the first passenger shouted Minke Whale. Unfortunately we couldn't see it again, so we headed on towards some diving Gannets. We stayed a long time in this area and spotted a bigger whale surfacing twice not more than 50m away from our boat. It came only very little out of the water and sadly we could not see it again. As we couldn't see the dorsal fin we are not sure if it was a Minke Whale or a Humpback Whale. After this we unfortunately hadn't any more signs of a whale, dolphin or porpoise. In the end of this rough tour everyone on board got a complimentary ticket to try their luck again.
Tour at 0900
Report from Hafsúlan: A windy day out in the bay today but the sun was out so it wasn´t too cold but we all made use of the free overalls, blankets and raincoats onboard. We started at Akurey (Puffin Island) and they were everywhere. Little black and white birds with their little orange feet and colourful bills. We then headed out to the main whale watching area and found a great Minke Whale that surfaced many times but quite far from the boat 50+m. The second Minke we saw was the closest only 5-10 meters but it only surfaced twice and unfortunetly heading away so we only got to see a small part of the whale. The third whale was further away but still visable in the waves. No more whales were seen for a while but we found an area with hundreds of birds, mainly Gannets, Black-backed Gulls, Fulmars and Kittiwake. These birds were obviously feeding but no whales were found in this area. We did have a brief glimpse of some Harbour Porpoises but i think not many passengers got to see them. Windy but beautiful morning at sea.
Birds seen on todays tours include; Puffins, Guillemots, Manx Shearwaters, Seagulls, Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Arctic Terns, Arctic Skua´s, Eider Ducks, Greylag Geese and Brent Geese.