Tour at 19:00
Report from Elding: Today we mixed things up a little with me guiding from inside - as there were so few of us on board it worked quite well! We all got to cosy up together and talk a lot more than I normally would be able to in the guide box. Forty minutes into the tour we had 5 friendly white-beaked dolphins join us. They were very playful and stayed with us for a while, at one point even bow-riding! Dolphins continued to sporadically pop up throughout the trip much to the enjoyment of everyone on board. What a lovely way to spend the evening!
-Rachel Pool
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: The conditions definitely weren't ideal for spotting - rain, fog, sun, more rain, sun again. Just typical icelandic. Nontheless, we managed to spot a total of 3 pods of white-beaked dolphins. The first pod consisted of 5 animals that were milling, which is a type of resting. Our second pod of 8 animals was definitely the most fun for all of us as they were socialising and interacting with one another, doing many leaps and riding the waves. Our third pod of 3 animals was feeding in an area together with a minke whale and many northern gannets diving into the water! It was a spectacular way to end our trip.
- Sabrina Voswinkel
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsúlan: Despite the overcast sky, the sea conditions were perfect for spotting as the swell wasn't breaking into White caps and the sea was a nice uniform colour. About an hour into our trip we had our first sighting - a pod of 5 white-beaked dolphins. While initially lethargic, we finally piqued their curiosity and they swam very close to the boat much to our delight! It took us a while but we later came across a minke whale. To our extreme happiness the typically reticent animal approached us and surfaced practically touching distance away from the boat. It was quite large and gave us a perfect view of the white patches on its pectoral fins. What a great trip with such friendly animals!
-Rachel Pool
Tour at 13.00
Report from Eldey: The weather was pretty nice at the beginning of the tour: almost mirroric seas and just a little bit of wind. Later on this wind was meant to pick up a little bit, decreasing the quality of the spotting conditions. Almost right at the beginning of the tour we spotted the first cetacean, a really small juvenile of a minke whale. We stood with this individual for quite a while, since the surfacings were predictable and fairly close to the boat. Right close to this minke we had a pod of 5-7 white beaked dolphins, but when we tried to approach this animals they behaved rather elusive and we decided to leave them in peace. There were a few more pods waiting for us in the bay though. The second one, with 3-4 individuals was also quite elusive but the third and final one, with 4-5 individuals came really close to the boat and allowed all our passengers to spot them through the water! A beautiful show!
- Alberto Alejandro
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsulan:It was a beautiful sunny morning, with calm seas and only a little wind. After only a little sailing we found our first cetacean the minke whale, this animal surfaced very frequently allowing us a wonderful view of its body. Another minke then came to join the fun so we were able to watch the two surfacing in different directions and at varying distances. It was decided to head further out into the bay to see if we could spot some other cetaceans and after only a short sail tall dark dorsal fins were spotted rising from the water. These belonged to the incredible white-beaked dolphins, this pod of 8 animals stunned us with beautiful leaps, feeding behaviours and inverted breaches performed by a calf no less! It really was such a pleasure to watch these wild animals actually come towards us and swim right under our boat and then again to the other side, playing in the waves that our vessel was creating. We then got to witness some fantastic herding behaviour and some very close encounters. Absolutely fantastic! If that wasn´t enough on the way back yet another two minke whales were spotted coming up wonderfully close. What an exceptional tour!
- Tess Hudson
Tour at 9.00
Report from Eldey: We had a nice day out on the water today. Sun and clouds were in constant change and although the waves were higher than expected, they were long, making it fun to go along with their motion. We encountered a minke whale before we had even passed the lighthouse Grotta. It seemed to be feeding, as it was changing direction with every surface. And while we got to see it surface 5 times, it was being difficult to follow so we kept heading out further. We encountered another 2 minke whales along the way but both were elusive and only surfaced once each, though very close to us! The highlight however was the pod of 7-8 white-beaked dolphins we then encountered. They were absolutely wonderful. The pod included 2 juveniles which kept leaping out of the water alongside the adults. We stayed with them for nearly an hour, experiencing them approach us and come right to the bow of the boat numerous times. Everyone dolphinitely enjoyed this tour, including myself!
- Sabrina Voswinkel
Birds seen on today's tours: common guillemot, atlantic puffin, northern fulmar, northern gannet, arctic turn, eider duck, cormorant, redshank and black-backed gull.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. There is little wind but there could be some movement on the boat out on Faxabay. We do offer sea sickness tablets if you are sensitive to motion sickness. Hope that you are able to join us on our search for these magnificent animals.
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