9:00 

Tour Status: ON 
Sightings: YES – Minke whales. 

13:00 

Andrea departed from Reykjavik Old Harbour for a whale watching themed cruise in the Icelandic waters of Faxafloi bay.  We cruised westward to the feeding grounds, hoping to find the Minke Whales that we had encountered a few hours earlier. We spotted one of them from a few miles away and attempted to get closer. As we reached the area we slowed down our boat and the animal surfaced 50 meters away from our bow. This whale vanished as soon as it was revealed to us. We then searched the whole feeding grounds until our time ran out and we headed back to the city. Before entering Kollafjörður someone spotted a few dorsal fins. We got closer and found ourselves in the company of 3 orcas. Unrelated to those from The Lord of the Rings, these whales from the delphinidae family are commonly known as Killer Whales, or Black Fish. The most famous of them all, Keiko, was an Icelandic orca captured close to the Westman Islands in 1979. He would soon be renowned as a movie star, playing the role of Willy in the eponymous film series. We watched these Killer Whales that gracefully fended the surface with their long and curvy dorsal fin. They swam by our boat while we looked open-mouthed at the wondrous sight. Were we seeing the very reason of the sudden departure of the Minke Whales from the bay? We finally made our way back to the harbour, with warmed hearts and our minds still wandering somewhere out in the open ocean.

– Etienne Menétrey

Tour Status: ON 
Sightings: YES – Orcas and minke whales.