Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: We definitely had the best sea conditions on the late afternoon tour today, topped off with some glorious sunshine. On our journey out we spotted perhaps 3 harbour porpoises blazing at the surface, but then they were gone so quickly we did not stop for them. After a long sail out we were delighted to spot our first minke whale! When this individual surfaced so close to the boat it seemed interested in us but sadly not; after 2 dives it had disappeared out of sight. We saw the backs briefly of at least two more individuals within 500 m of the boat but these guys were also very hard to locate! Our last minke was by far the best of the tour, surfacing more slowly and predictably with even a lunge feed thrown in! A great show! Just as it seemed we had lost the minke we saw splashes in the other direction so headed off and found a pod of ~10 white-beaked dolphin. These dolphins were leaping for joy at first then split into two smaller groups, one on either side of the boat, and the calves in the group started some very entertaining head and tail slapping! It was wonderful to see such active animals, particularly in the spectacular setting sun we had the whole journey back.
- Ophelie Humphrey
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: The sea conditions were not the best at first but it got better towards the end of the tour. Unfortunately we did not get to see our beloved cetaceans very well. Only two individuals of minke whale throughout the tour and very very far from the boat. Besides, they were very elusive so I highly doubt any of the passengers got to see them well. Because of that we gave away complimentary tickets which are valid within 2 years from today. It was also very sunny and nice sailing! we got to see diving northern gannets! very impressive to watch! Lovely tour in the sun but no good sightings this time.
- Jorge Pascual
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: it was a windy day and the ride out on the bay was bumpy. Our first sighting was a pod of 4-5 feeding harbour porpoises, surfacing fast underneath a flock of sea gulls. We didn't spend any time chasing these small cetaceans so maybe not many of our passengers spotted them. We wanted to keep on going further out on the bay in hope to find larger species. After a long time searching we found a minke whale, it was elusive but we got few great looks at it while it surfaced a couple of times on the same spot. as we kept on going we saw at least 5 other minke whales! Unfortunately they were all elusive and difficult to follow. Most of them we only spotted a few times before they vanished after a deeper dive. Still it was pleasant ride with multiple minke sightings.
-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir
Bird species seen on today´s tours: northern gannet, lesser black-backed gull, cormorants, eider ducks, black headed gull, glaucous gull, kittiwake, and northern fulmar.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour i Reykjavik today. The wind is coming from the North-East and is 6-8m/s. There will be movement on the boat due to swells out on Faxa Bay.