Whale Bingo Today – Special Tours

Whale Bingo – Harbor Porpoises, White-beaked Dolphins, Minke Whale and Humpback Whale… Check!

08.May 2018

WHALE WATCHING CLASSIC

9:00

We sailed out in the morning for a whale watching tour on our lovely Andrea. The mountain range Bláfjöll laid in the sun behind us. On our way passing Grótta we saw several puffins just in front of us, just a few minutes later a pot of nice harbor porpoises came past us. After half an hour later seven white-beaked dolphins surrounded us in a line side by side and suddenly there was a minke whale under them. Leaving this one behind the next minke whale appears in front of us. We just wanted to search in another area when a humpback whale joined us.

– Lea Sielhorst

Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Humpback whale, minke whale, white-beaked dolphins and harbour porpoises.

13:00

Leaving the Old harbor in the afternoon, there was no wind so we were able to sail smoothly into the Faxaflói. A huge flock of arctic terns flew next to us and many more joined our way to the feeding grounds. Imagine this birds just came from the antarctic ocean! And that bird blessing did not leave us – an uncountable number of puffins joint us as well until we saw some harbor porpoises. Then we were again surrounded by arctic terns and they were feeding, so one of our three B’s! And in the moment I said it a minke whale appeared next to them. We left this one behind and in the moment we did four white-beaked dolphins were in next to us, but left us quite fast. As we sailed further on three more appeared and kept swimming around us for a really long time! Since we still had time left we headed further on and again just minutes after we were surprised again, the fourth of our mainly seen whales in the bay dived 200 meters ahead of us a humpback whale. In the moment we reached its fluke print it surfaced again. It breached next to us over and over again. On the individual fluke pattern we could tell that this was the same we saw already in the morning! Such a remarkable day!

– Lea Sielhorst

Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Humpback whale, minke whale, white-beaked dolphins and harbour porpoises.

WHALE WATCHING EXPRESS

10:00

Lilja sailed out of Reykjavík’s Old Harbour for a whale watching themed cruised in the Icelandic waters of Faxafloi bay. We headed westward to the feeding grounds, where we have better chances of spotting cetaceans. On the way we passed by a few harbour porpoises. The porpoises are odontocetes, which means that they have teeth. The toothed whales use their biological sonar to detect prey. Later we noticed a spout in the distance. As we got closer we found a humpback whale that was swimming calmly in the area. This beast remained close to the surface and came very close to our starboard side, allowing us to gaze in wonder at its mighty tail and fluke. We saw the humpback whale surface and breath many times. The humpbacks are mysticetes, which means that they use baleen plates to filter the food out of the sea water. Later we tried to cruise further out, searching for different species of cetaceans, but to no avail. We passed my many flocks of birds foraging. There were many Arctic terns, which are coming back from their seasonal pilgrimage into the southern hemisphere close to the Antarctic circle! We also saw many northern gannets, northern fulmars and puffins. When our time ran out we headed back to Reykjavík and managed to spot a humpback whale along the way. Excellent way to start the day!

– Etienne Menétrey

Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Humpback whales and harbour porpoises

14:00

Today has been a great expedition, one of the best of this Whale Watching season! After few minutes of sailing we encountered a small group of harbour porpoises. We know that these animals are quite shy but fortunately they came close enough to let us see them very well. We kept sailing to the feeding grounds and three beautiful white-beaked dolphins decided to come to play with us! They have been swimming around our boat for quite a while, but then the big guy arrived. A huge humpback whale decided to come to check out what was happening. It got very close (less than 20 meters!!!) and it stayed with us for about 20 minutes before we had to wave it and head back to the hold harbour of Reykjavik. It is always touching to see these marvelous creatures in their natural habitat.

– Federico Facchin

Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Humpback whale, white-beaked dolphins and harbour porpoises

RIB EXPRESS

11:00

Today the weather seemed to be getting better compared to the day before. Still all the mountains that border Faxafloi were not visible due to the high cloud density and rain. Thankfully as we sailed out we did not get rained on so much. As we searched around the bay we were able to spot a Minke whale which we followed for a couple surfacings until it went for a deep dive and we lost track. After this beautiful creature our attention was caught by this pod of 7 white-beaked dolphins that were taking a morning stroll. They continued with their swimming and we sailed parallel to them, getting a lovely view of these majestic creatures.

Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Minke whale, white-beaked dolphins

14:00

Tour Status: Not running due to scheduled maintainance
Sightings: N/A