Tour at 17:00
This tour was a bit more unusual than the other two today. We went to our usual area and searched without luck. There was hardly anything to see there. So we sailed further out on the bay and went further out than we have been in a long time. But our patient passengers were rewarded, because out there we spotted two nice minke whales. They surfaced several times, sometimes both of them at the same time! On our way back to the harbour again we spotted one more minke whale. It was surfacing in the same area as a group of feeding birds. It surfaced right under the flock at one point and we could also see bubbles coming up when it was swimming below surface. Then we continued our way back and saw a big splash ahead of us. We saw it a couple of times but weren't able to spot the animal producing the splash. Unfortunately the splash didn't come again when we were in the area. Because of how far we went out today we were half an hour late back at the harbour... but the long distances paid of and both crew and passengers were happy at the end of the day :-)
Tour at 13:00
Report from Elding: The wind got less in the afternoon! Suddenly we spotted a minke whale and stayed with it for a long while. It was feeding clearly and once right at the surface so we could see its white belly! Later we spotted another one and followed it for a short time till we ended up again with the one we watched in the beginning. Again we had a really nice tour with lots of good opportunities to watch the whales.
Report from Hafsúla: The weather was still nice, even though there was still some swell out on the bay. We went to a similar area as in the morning tour and found several whales. In the tour we saw three minke whales very well. They surfaced close to us several times. Two of them were swimming very fast and we were impressed with their speed (minke whales can reach a speed of up to 27 km/h - pretty amazing!) We also saw other minke whales but they weren't as cooperative ;-) They surfaced once or twice before deep diving. It is near the end of the puffin season and there are fewer and fewer puffins left at the island. However, they haven't all left and it is still worth it making a stop there. It will be interesting to see when they will leave.
Tour at 9:00
Report from Hafsúla: It was a little bit rough on the way out to Faxaflói bay. But once we were out there the weather was quite good! There were two feeding minke whales all the time around the boat! We had a very nice time with them. One of our boat spotted white-beaked dolphins and we went there, too. The dolphins were very fast swimming and we had to sail fast to keep up with them. A nice tour!
Report from Elding: The weather was nice, even though there was a bit of a swell out on the bay. First we spotted a group of white beaked dolphins. They were swimming very fast and changed direction several times. They were nice to observe, but we didn't stay with them for too long. Instead we sailed further out on the bay were we spotted first one minke whale. It was a nice one, it surfaced several times before deep diving and disappearing. Then we saw a couple of more minkes, but they weren't as approachable so we went to another area. There we saw several minke whales, some far away but others closer to the boat. One of them surfaced just a couple of meters away from the boat, a bit unexpected, and it was a very nice sighting.