09:00
Andrea sailed out of Reykjavik old Harbour for a whale watching tour in the Icelandic waters of Faxafloi bay. We headed west and soon found out that White Beaked Dolphins were breaching and leaping far away on the horizon. By the time we got there they had stopped but we found a Minke Whale instead. We saw the Minke Whale several times. Then we saw a second Minke Whale come up. Then we saw many White Beaked Dolphinsþ We had lots of sightings. Some of them even swam underneath the boat. There were Blacked Backed Gulls, Puffins, Guillemots, Northern Fulmars, northern Gannets.
Tour: ON
Sightings:Minke whales, White beaked dolphins
10:00
Our luck with the sunny weather in Reykjavík continued today! We boarded our catamaran, the Lilja, and set sail from the Old Harbor on our Whale Watching Express adventure. Out in the bay of Faxaflói, the wind was still blowing from the northwest, but fortunately it had calmed down considerably from yesterday. The sailing was nice and smooth the whole tour! We sailed out towards the feeding grounds and got word from our other boat, the Andrea, that some whales were spotted up ahead. We approached carefully, and it wasn’t long before our sighting of a fully-grown minke whale! We were fortunate to watch this huge animal surfacing again and again, giving us great looks at its side. It surfaced nice and slowly so all our passengers could see it. The water was so calm that it left perfect fluke prints on the water wherever it came up. It went for a few deeper dives before reappearing farther away – if it was even the same whale! We could hear its blow at times when it came up only 50 meters away. After a while we said goodbye and continued searching, until our captain spotted a pod of 3-5 white-beaked dolphins in the distance. We went to check them out, and we were rewarded by beautiful views of these dolphins and their gray and white colorations as they came up quite close at times. Not wanting to disturb them, we headed off in search of more whales. We were then surprised by another minke whale coming up right in front of us! We followed it awhile, and again we got lucky, with this whale showing itself off quite nicely. Our next sighting was a larger pod of white-beaked dolphins, possibly 8-10, and they were curious, coming up just 10 meters off our bow! Time was running short so we had to head back to the Old Harbor, and along the way we saw 2 more minke whales. All in all, it was a great tour with 2 cetacean species, and plenty of seabirds – including our favorite, the adorable puffin!
Tour: ON
Sightings: Minke whales, White beaked dolphins
13:00
Andrea sailed out of Reykjavik’s old Harbour for a whale watching tour in the Icelandic waters of Faxafloi bay. We headed west and soon found many birds in the distance. On the way there we saw a Minke Whale come up a few times, far away. We reached the area with the birds and saw many Puffins, Blacked Back Gulls, Northern Fulmars, Kittiwakes. There we found a Minke Whale that was feeding. We had several sightings. Then we headed northward and found White Beaked Dolphins. They were leaping and splashing and swimming very close to the boat.
Tour: ON
Sightings: Minke whales, White beaked dolphins
14:00
After our very successful morning with the whales, we couldn’t wait to take the Lilja out again for the afternoon Whale Watching Express! We set sail from Reykjavík’s Old Harbor and headed out into Faxaflói Bay, and decided to search an area a bit more north than before. The sea was somehow even flatter than this morning and the sky was overcast – perfect whale watching conditions! Before long, we had our first sighting of a minke whale. We watched this animal for a while as it surfaced nicely and slowly, and we were getting great looks at it before we decided to head off in search of more animals. We continued on our journey before we encountered a pod of white-beaked dolphins traveling farther out into the bay. We caught up to them just as they had slowed down and they started changing directions rapidly, likely feeding in the area. There were about 10 or so dolphins in this pod, including a mother and her very young (and cute) calf. They weren’t worried about us at all, coming within a few meters of our boat several times, checking us out and staying around us. We went to say goodbye, and were lucky enough to have more encounters with some other minke whales, and even a recently hatched common guillemot chick and its mother! We were again lucky with the animals this afternoon, and sailed home happy with our sightings.
Tour: ON
Sightings: Minke whales, White beaked dolphins
17:00
Andrea sailed out of Reykjavik’s old Harbour for a whale watching tour in the Icelandic waters of Faxafloi bay. We headed west and soon found many Minke Whales. We had numerous sightings. Minke Whales were popping up in every direction. At first they were far, but we had a few close encounters as well. Then we went looking for White Beaked Dolphins and found them swimming around. They got really close to the boat, swimming underneath us. A Dolphin was leaping and slapping its tail for a while to our delight. We saw northern Gannets, Guillemots, Puffins, Northern Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Blacked Back Gulls.
Tour: ON
Sightings: Minke Whales, White Beaked Dolphins