Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: The sky cleared up late afternoon so we left the harbour with a beautiful weather and perfect sea conditions. There was a lot of Puffin around Akurey, sitting on the water, relaxing in the sun. Then we headed offshore in Faxafloi Bay. Even the conditions were perfect to spot whales miles away we sailed a long time without seing a sign of cetacean. We finally saw a Minke Whale we followed for half an hour. This guys kept changing direction and speeding up so it was probably following the fish. We the made our way back to Reykjavik listening some live music.
Tour at 17:00
Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out in a good weather with perfect condition to spot whales, but unfortunately we saw quickly some harbour porpoises, that we finally gave complimentary tickets to our passenger that they can come back
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: We started our tour by going to Akurey to take a look at the puffin colony and were very happy to see many puffins both around the island as well as flying around and sitting in front of their burrows. Akurey was certanly very lively today! After a nice stay with the puffins we headed out Faxaflói bay, we had some news of a Minke Whale that had been spotted by other whale watching boat so we sailed on to them. That turned out to be a good call and there we spotted the first Minke Whale of the tour. It turned out to be one awesome Minke, surfaced all around the boat and very close as well no further than two meters away from us! After seeing this Minke so close we headed further on to see what else the bay had to offer today and we did not have to look for long until we spotted some Harbour Porpoises. We watched these small and shy porpoises for some time and everyone got a good look at them since the sea was so calm so they were easy to spot. Then we started heading back home but on our way back we spotted some White Beaked Dolphins but they cept their distance and we did not spot them again. That did not bother us much because while we looked for the dolphins we saw another Harbour Porpoise and a Minke Whale! So this trip was all in all extremely nice, expecially the close contact we had with the first Minke we saw.
Tour at 13:00
Report from Hafsúllan: We saw on this tour two species: two Minke Whales really close to the boat, and three different pods of Habour Porpoises which were really easy and awesome to watch on this tour! First we went to Akurey to see the puffins and there were so many of them flying, swimming, standing or chilling. We saw a great black backed gull flying with a puffin in the bill (they can swallow young ones but adults as well). Then out in the bay, the guide spotted the first Minke Whale in a distance we came close to it and saw it several time surfacing slowly between 20 to 60 meters from the boat that we could hear the blow and see the extremity of the mouth of the whale coming up first to the surface. We got a great encounter with the first, but a second one was further but we could still see it while following the first one. Nice tour !
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: Puffin Island was exceptionally good this morning with great numbers of the colourful seabirds on the water, in the air and on land. Then we went out and it did not take us long time to get to where several other whale-watching boats, including our sistership Hafsúlan, were posted. They had been seeing a Minke Whale just before so we joined them in the waiting. As soon as all but one had left, a splendid Minke Whale showed up. It was remarkably docile and carefree about our presence, just surfaced calmly over and over again. It is unlikely that it was feeding since there was almost no fish there and no krill either (we know this based on that there were no birds) so we think it was sleeping actually. Whales continue to swim even when sleeping, they just rest half of the brain at a time. Then soon we headed off but about half-an-hour before reaching Reykjavik another Minke Whale popped up right in front of Hvalfjörður fjord. We also had excellent sightings of this animal and it provided a splendid ending to our trip.
Tour at 09:00
Report from Hafsúlan: We started our day at Akurey and it was amazing to see all those puffins on the island. After this stop we sailed out into Faxafloí Bay and we searched for a long time until we spotted the first Minke Whale of the tour. Unfortunately it showed up only twice and disappeared in the ocean. We headed on and found a second Minke Whale that was much better look at. We could smell it, it surfaced many times and came closer than 10 meter to our vessel. When time was over we had to leave and headed back towards Reykjavík were we arrived with a bit delay as we had to search for a while to find our Minke of the tour!
Birds seen on this tour : Arctic Skuas, Arctic Terns, Cormorants, Eider Ducks, Fulmars, Lesser and Great Black Backed Gulls, Common Guillemots, Puffins, Manx Shearwaters, Gannets.