Wednesday, 27 October 2021

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00 and 14:00 Premium Whale 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

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00

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.

The seas may be rough, so as always, we have sea sickness tablets available free of charge at our ticket office. Join us by booking online or contact us directly for more information (elding@elding.is / +354 519 5000).

Report from Eldey: We motored out in chilly 6-8m/s easterly winds that were only really felt on the way back home when we could then enjoy the warmth of the inside saloons and the yummy whale punch (hot chocolate with spiced rum). On the way out we had a beautiful sunrise and rainbow to enjoy until we got to the productive grounds after roughly 45mins. First thing we saw that showed a lot of promise is the birdlife, so many birds actively gathering and obviously feeding. We slowed down to search this area thoroughly and soon saw a small blow from a minke whale, the crew saw this whale at least 5 times but most the passengers didn’t see anything at all. It was surfing maybe twice, disappearing for a while and popping up in a different area. Luckily a HUGE blow was seen, A humpback whale 500m away, first it took a 9 minute dive and then surfaced more regularly, looked to be a very small individual and obviously quite an elusive one. We then got word from another whale watching boats that encountered a pair of humpback whales and was playing at the surface, waving their pectoral fins, blowing bubbles and just the enjoying each others company and possibly ours as well. They definitely where the highlight of the tour.  We also saw more blows in the distance as least from another 2 solitary individuals. It was just amazing to see the bay full of life again.

- Megan Whittaker

Report from RIB: The bay was booming with life today! Hundreds of birds covered the sky, thousands of fish swam underneath our boat, and - what we were all waiting for - a myriad of marine mammals were diving in the bay. It all started with a harbour porpoise that was spotted by one of our passengers close to the boat. Not long after, a harbour seal popped out his head to inspect our boat. We stayed a little while to see if the animals would surface again, but then decided to look for something bigger. We saw the blow of what looked like a big whale in the distance, and to our pleasant surprise we found not one, but two humpback whales feeding on the abundance of fish around us. The pair of humpback whales were very friendly with our boat, appearing just a few meters away from us as they came up for a breath, showed their tails, and sometimes even slapped their pectoral fins. They stayed with us for more than half an hour, after a while even joined by four white-beaked dolphins! The spectacle of watching the dolphins jumping around the whales and our boat put a huge smile on everyone´s face, but after a while we decided to let these animals feed by themselves and look for other individuals. We didn´t have to wait long until we had our next sighting... within five minutes we encountered another humpback whale. Again, the individual was not shy at all and surfaced within ten meters from our boat. Our captain even got splashed in the face by the humpback´s blow! As we motored back to Reykjavík, we saw the blow of yet another humpback whale and we encountered three or four harbour porpoises. This trip will undoubtedly last in our memories for a very long time and shows that the sea can be full of surprises!

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Eldey: The weather was amazing on this tour, the wind had dropped and on the way offshore it felt like summer, some were even wearing a t-shirt out on deck but soon added layers once the boat turned and the cold October winds were felt, brrrrr!. Once again the bat was full of life. Our first encounter was a small pod of 3-4 harbour porpoises that many saw, then a big blow, then another, then another we saw 6 different humpback whales on this tour and two minke whales, one very well. Going back to the humpbacks we saw 3 solitary individuals, one that was getting a lot of attention from 4-5 white beaked dolphin adult and calves, it even started spy hopping and surfaced just meters from our bow and showed its incredible fluke. There there was a pair of humpback that surprised us to actually be 3 travelling together. It was only once though they came up all together. There were more white-beaked dolphins around also but they were very scattered, 2 here, 3 there all together I would say we saw between 10-15 dolphins. Just an INCREDIBLE tour.

- Megan Whittaker

Report from Þruma 4: The wind calmed down this afternoon and the sun was shining brightly; perfect conditions for whale watching. The bay was still full of fish, and even though the birds that we saw this morning had disappeared, the marine mammals were still around. In fact, everywhere we looked we saw signs of cetacean activity. First, we found two white-beaked dolphins: a mother and her young swam calmly around us. Not long after, we saw the blow of a humpback whale, with a minke whale surfacing in the background. We decided to search for the humpback whale pair from the morning, because they had been very friendly with our boat. They were still feeding together, roughly in the same area. In the meantime, a fourth humpback whale also surfaced close to our boat. All around us, we saw blows from whales and splashes from dolphins. We still had some time, so we decided to check out another blow that we spotted in the distance, where we actually found two more humpback whales! Absolutely amazed by the amount of wildlife we had seen today, we returned back to Reykjavík. The way back still held one surprise for us: five playful white-beaked dolphins approached our boat. With six humpback whales (and even more blows in the distance), one minke whale and many white-beaked dolphins, this tour was fantastic. 

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Þruma 2 : We went out and quickly crossed a group of 4-5 white-beaked dolphins that was a bit spread around our boat. At the distance a white-beaked dolphin was making big jump falling in big splashes so they were probably more dolphins in the bay. But we quickly continued to find a pair of humpback whales that were very calmly swimming, without doing proper dives or showing their fluke. We decided to go further east where another humpback whale was observed earlier and we actually found 2 humpback whales there, and even a couple of white-beaked dolphins that came to visit one of the whales before disappearing. We had a very nice sighting with one of the whales that was doing beautiful fluke dives. During the way back we saw from far away the blow of another whale but it was late so we just directly came back to the harbour after a short city-sighting. It is great that the bay is filled with animals !

- Miquel Pons