9:00
This morning the bay was a bit gloomy, but not as windy as yesterday night.
We reached the feeding grounds of the whales, and soon we could spot a family of white beaked dolphins. These dolphins kept breaching for 5/10 minutes, which doesn’t happen often since these animals are wild.
We kept sailing for 40 minutes but we have not been lucky with big whales until, on the way back, we could spot another family of cetaceans: harbour porpoises this time! at least 5 of them!
-Federico
Cloudy afternoon today, but the sea was very calm, an it has been a pleasure to sail in the Faxafloi bay.
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: White-beaked dolphins
Flawless ocean conditions shall create an amazing couple hours on the ocean. Reaching the feeding grounds within Faxafloi, the first sighting was expecting us. Some tiny and really shy harbour porpoises passed our boat, showing up for a couple times until they vanished again into the depth. A great start! Soon after, another species showed up – a minke whale; letting us observe its typical surfacing behaviour. It seemed this minke wasn’t in a rush at all, so everyone could get a good look. Last but not least we all should get surprised by a really playful and curious pod of white-beaked dolphins encountering the boat very close, even riding the bow. Whilst still observing them heading a bit further away from us, the younger individuals started to breach out of the water. A perfect closing for such a beautiful evening on the ocean.
– Federico Facchin
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: Minke whales, white-beaked dolphins and harbour porpoises
We had wonderfully calm seas this morning for our first Whale Watching Express tour of the day! We headed out from the Old Harbor and made our way out towards the feeding grounds of the largest bay in Iceland. We communicated with all the other boats in the area as well, to expand our search capabilities. For a while, things seemed very quiet – it was well over one hour without any sightings at all. But then we decided to search another area to the south, and we were taken by surprise when a minke whale surfaced just 40 meters from our boat, taking a deep dive! After searching the area it would turn out to be the only sightings of this individual, but eager to show our passengers more we headed on. Fortunately, our next minke whale was much more cooperative – we saw it again and again as it surfaced and showed us its smooth back and dorsal fin. It was a great relief and a wonderful way to finish the tour!
– Jonathan Rempel
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: Minke whales
14:00
Somehow, the sea conditions were even calmer for our second tour – the water’s surface was as flat as a mirror, so we could even see the mountains around the bay reflected in the sea. Perfect conditions for whale watching! After sailing aboard the Lilja towards the same area as this morning, we slowed down to check out a pod of harbor porpoises swimming along peacefully, when all of a sudden a minke whale popped up right in front of us! We followed the whale for a while, taking interest in the way this one was often poking its snout out of the water when it came up to breathe. We could hear its blow many times as we followed it, so all our passengers got a great look at it. Then we left the area and headed north, where we came across a large pod of at least 20 white-beaked dolphins, and they were in an especially playful mood today! We watched some of them breaching and jumping again and again, as the rest of their pod followed closely behind. Their beautiful white and gray patterns stood out especially well in the afternoon light, and so we watched in silence. Eventually the time came to head back to the harbor, but we were so happy to have seen 3 cetacean species today!
– Jonathan Rempel
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: Minke whales, white-beaked dolphins and harbour porpoises
Tour Status: CANCELLED
Sightings: N/A
Our fast RIB was ready for a morning of whale watching. We left the Old Harbour and went to the feeding grounds. The sea conditions were very good, and we started to look for whales, dolphins and porpoises. We shortly spotted some white-beaked dolphins, but they were gone very fast. Because we did not get a very good look at these dolphins, we let our passengers know that they could come with us again for a trip on one of our bigger whale watching boats.
-Ronald
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: No – Passengers were invited to come again for free
Tour Status: CANCELLED
Sightings: N/A
14:00
Tour Status: CANCELLED
Sightings: N/A
Tour Status: CANCELLED
Sightings: N/A
