Tour at 2030
Report from Skrúður: We started the tour at puffin island where we could have a look at many flying puffins and moreover a wonderful rainbow over Reykjavik giving us the opportunity to take a really nice photo of the capital of Iceland illuminated by the midnight sun. Then we headed offshore to search for our favourite animals. It didn't take a long time before we spotted the first Minke Whale. We stayed with it for a little while and left it in peace to keep on exploring the bay. Throughout the tour we got to see three other Minke Whales and when we started heading back a solitary White-beaked Dolphin came to bowride and surf the wakes of our boat. What a Beautifull evening. We ended the tour with some live music and magic tricks to keep the magic of the night.
Tour at 1700
Report from Hafsúlan: After stopping at the puffin island, where there were not as many birds as have been lately, we headed out as usually. Quite honestly the tour did not start as one would have wanted to. Very few sightings on our way out and extremely elusive minke whales we saw. Then, one of our researchers spotted a flock of birds very far away so we decided to take a look at that. When we arrived the flock had spread and there werent many birds left and as we were about to turn our boat around in disappointment finally two mike whales surfaced repededly showing their dorsal fins and back. Great sightings after a dull start. After 15 minutes we had to head back since we were running out of time but on our way back two more mike whales were spotted along with harbour porpoises quite close to the boat. So we returned satisfied with what we had seen and of course the beautiful weather we had all the time out in the bay while it rained in the city.
Tour at 1400
Report from Skrúður: We had high hopes for this tour after the amazing tour of the morning. However, even though we had great Minke Whales, Faxafói Bay wasn´t as productive as the morning. We saw many puffins on puffin island on the way out and two Minke Whales, one of them was our lovable friend Donut that we have been seeing every year since 2007. Donut is quite a stinky whale and you can usually smell his terrably fishy breathe and today was no different. Stinky Minke. We stayed with Donut for a while before starting to head home hoping to spot more whales on the way and we did another Minke Whale and a small pod of Harbour Porpoises (2-3 animals) too.
Tour at 1300
Report from Hafsúlan: On our midday tour we had typical Icelandic weather. Changing from rain to sun and back to rain again. After having so many minke whales seen on our morning tours nature has changed a bit and the bay was a little bit calmer on this tour. All in all we saw 2 minke whales on our tour. We could spot them several times very clear in front of our boat but after a couple of minutes they disappeared. Furthermore we spotted two times harbour porpoises. One of them was very close to the boat almost jumping out of the water and we could see his whole body very good.
Tour at 0900 Report from Hafsúlan: We started off in the puffin island Akurey where we had some great puffin sightings. There were quite many birds there this morning, both on the island, in the air and in the water. After having visitied them we headed out to the bay and onlu about 10 minutes in we spotted a group of harbour porpoises quite close to the boat. It's rather unusal to see them this close to the shore so they caught us off guard there. We continued further out and soon spotted a minke whale that seems to be asleep. After a while it took a deep dive so we continued but not far, because shortly thereupon we were suddenly surrounded by mike whales and harbour porpoises. The rest of the tour we spent just spinning in circle on the boat as these majestic animals were surfacing all around us and gannets were diving down for food. All in all it was a great tour in great weather conditions with great sightings!
Tour at 0900
Report from Skrúður: Moody but beautiful out in the bay this morning. Perfect for photography. Half the skies where dark, threating rain but the other half was open and the sun shone through. We started this tour at Akurey (Puffin Island), hundreds if not thousands of Puffins were bathing in the sea, standing around the island and just generally being Puffins. We then headed offshore and saw two Minke Whales and a small pod of Harbour Porpoises after about 20 minutes of sailing. We enjoyed watching these for a while before we headed further out to an area our sister vessel Hafsúlan said there was more life. They were not wrong. We stopped the engines for about 35 minutes and just enjoyed the sound of nature. Minke Whales surfacing all around the boat and birds too. The light was perfect to see the incredible detail of the wings and see them flying with the moody sky behind them. It was beautiful. Just as we decided to leave for home we had a surprising sight of a Minke Whale lunge feeding and then rolling just 20 meters infront of the boat. We stayed to see if it would do it again but unfortunately it didn´t so we headed back. Throughout the tour we must of seen at least 15-20 Minke Whales and two small pods of Harbour Porpoises of about 2-3 animals.
Sea birds seen on todays tours include; Gannets, Puffins, Guillemots, Razorbills, Manx Shearwaters, Arctic Terns, Arctic Skuas, Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Seagulls and Eider Ducks.