Wednesday, 3 November 2021

Today we will be operating 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
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00

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

Report from Eldey: The morning started out beautifully, with surprisingly little wind and with the sunrise highlighting the city and the mountains. As we sailed into the  bay, we saw some flocks of birds flying around. When we took a closer look, there were birds everywhere we looked - a very promising sign for the fish availability. We soon saw two harbour porpoises surfacing among the birds, but they disappeared and we decided to look for something bigger. Not long after, we saw a blow, and then another blow, followed by part of a fluke at some distance from our boat. When we came closer, we were pleasantly surprised by three humpback whales! The whales were staying at the surface for a long time and diving for a short time, so perfect for us to enjoy almost constantly. The encounter kept getting better and better, with the whales coming closer to our boat with every surface. The absolute highlight was when the  whales came up at about 3 meters away from our boat. We could admire the animals´ silhouette when they were still underneath the surface and see the detail of their heads and bodies and tails when they came up for a breath. At some point, the humpbacks started rolling, lifting their pectoral fins, and being very playful. We had to start heading back, but before we could, one of the humpback whales lifted its tail out and did a few inverse tail slaps; a spectacular goodbye to an amazing encounter. On our way back to the city, a minke whale surfaced right in front of us and we saw it and another individual taking a few breaths quite close to our boat. This tour is really a great reminder of the wonder of marine mammals and of how important it is to protect them and their ecosystems so that we can keep admiring them for many years to come. 

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Eldey: The afternoon was a lot colder and windier than the morning, and some rain was starting to fall. We arrived to the area where we had seen the whales in the morning, and there were still many hints that marine mammals were present here: we saw big flocks of birds, lots of fish underneath us, and eventually a minke whale! The minke whale surfaced three times, but we lost track of it after a deeper dive. A few minutes later we saw three harbour porpoises traveling past our boat. As usual with this species, the harbour porpoises quickly disappeared in the big waves so we could only enjoy their presence for a minute or so. We wanted to look if we could maybe find the humpback whales from this morning, and through the hard wind and powerful hail, we were finally able to spot one humpback whale! The first time we saw it, the whale showed us its fluke. After a little wait, the humpback showed up right in front of our boat and was approaching us! It came incredibly close and stayed at the bow of the boat for a few minutes. Then, we could see its silhouette under the water’s surface swimming away from us. We waited a while for it to resurface, but we didn’t spot the whale again. Even though we had seen three species, and the encounter with the humpback whale was quite special, our captain wanted to give our passengers another chance to see more of the whales for a longer time on a future tour, so we gave out complimentary tickets.

- Eline van Aalderink