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.
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Humpback whale, minke whale, white-beaked dolphins and harbour porpoises.
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Humpback whale, minke whale, white-beaked dolphins and harbour porpoises.
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!
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Humpback whales and harbour porpoises
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Humpback whale, white-beaked dolphins and harbour porpoises
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
Tour Status: Not running due to scheduled maintainance
Sightings: N/A