Tuesday, 7 September 2021

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00 and 14:00 Premium Whale Watching tours and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00 and 13:00 Classic Whale Watching tours. Make sure to dress appropriately for the tours as it is always colder on sea than on land.

COVID-19: Keep in mind that passengers and crew are asked to ensure their own hygiene and safety at all times. Washing hands thoroughly with soap and using a hand sanitiser is advised. Masks are not mandatory but are recommended in areas where keeping distance from others is not possible.

Report from Eldey : The tour begun under a light rain, with a cold wind coming from the west. The sea was quite similar to yesterday, maybe slightly better but still with a 1.5 m swell. We went in the same area than yesterday and quite quickly we started to encounter things. First a minke whale, or maybe 2. They were quite elusive and challenging to spot but we still manage to see them a few times. Then we saw dolphins that were also quite elusive. We decided that we wanted to see further away if we could find some other animals when after 1 minute we found 2 blows coming from 2 humpback whales. They were the nicest humpback whales, coming very close, very curious, just calmly swimming around the boat for a bit less than an hour. It was hard to leave but as soon as they got more than 50 meters from us we turned back and came back to the harbour.

- Miquel Pons

Report from Þruma: The swell from yesterdays tours lingered throughout the day, with heights between 1-1.5 metres once again. The rain fell intermittently but this did not dampen our hopes of finding cetaceans after great sightings in recent days. We journeyed out into Faxafloi with every seat filled, stopping at one of our preferred destinations to scout the area. After a short pause, our captain saw the blow of a humpback whale within 500 metres, but we soon discovered that in fact it was two individuals and appeared to be the pair from yesterday. The whales exhibited calm behaviours to begin with, surfacing slowly and gracefully lifting their flukes for dives, until unexpectedly, one whale breached. The acrobatics only occurred once, with regular more sedate behaviours following. We were able to get great views of the pair, as they came within 20 metres of our boat.

- Mike Smith

Report from Eldey : It was sunny on the bay ! That is quite enjoyable after so many days of rain and clouds. We went back to the same area than this morning and found quite easily an elusive minke whale and 10 minutes after the 2 same humpback whales than this morning. One started with a bit of peduncle slapping and then they were very calmly coming close to the boat, swimming around, turning to see us better, and a bit of slow pectoral slapping. What an amazing moment we had with those whales. They were staying so close to the boat we could not even leave. We were running from a part of the boat to the other to have a better view on those majestic creatures that were clearly interested by our vessel. We came back still excited by this encounter.

- Miquel Pons

Report from Þruma: Much of the same in terms of the conditions, witha  touch more wind than in the morning. We headed to a similar area to where our encounters took place in the morning and soon stumbled upon a lone humpback whale. The whale swam just in front of our boat as we followed carefully from behind. After a short period with this individual we joined the larger boats as they had reported two humpbacks showing more inquisitive behaviours. As we arrived the whales were observed moving within 2 metres of the stern of the larger boats, clearly interacting and assessing the boats presence. Once this vessel left the pair moved very calmly in our vicinity and displayed the same curious nature towards us. The pair moved from our right side, under the boat and resurfaced within a metre on the left. The whale was so close that it would have been possible to touch it. They stayed relatively close for 5 minutes.

- Mike Smith