Saturday, 26 March 2022

• 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.

Report from Eldey: The weather was similar to this morning with rain, more wind and more swell so we had the real Viking weather for this tour. We took the direction of the good area where minke whales were spotted this morning but we very quickly encountered 7-8 white-beaked dolphins. We were stille close of the land near the lighthouse of Grótta. This pod was probably milling, swimming close to each other and changing their direction all the time. In the first minutes they came super close of our boat, crossing us on our right at a few meters of us! We could see their dark back through the water smoothly swimming near us. After this we could not get close again, they were going for a few minutes under the surface before surfacing all together. They did not seemed to be in the mood to be approached so we observed them a bit from the distance and kept going. We arrive in our good area of this morning but no sign of minke whales. We did cross 4 small pods of 3-5 harbour porpoises that we could quickly spot and their was many bird in the are. We turned and explore another area in the east but with we could not find anything there. We went back to Reykjavík with northern fulmar playing in the wind at a few meters of the boat.

- Miquel Pons

Report from Eldey: The morning tour started with drizzle, foggy, overcast skies and wind from the south caused some swell and waves further offshore. We headed more to the south to gain more shelter for the land. On the sail we enjoyed the company of Northern fulmars glided past the boat and a 2 small pods of 3-4 harbour porpoises that the passengers were having fun trying to spot as they can be challenging being the smallest cetacean in our waters. It was the minke whales that were the highlight of the tour that was first encountered by another whale watching boat. Once arriving it took us a little while before seeing it but soon the minke whale popped up close and surfaced frequently allowing everyone to see it a few times but it was rather difficult to photograph, so taking a video was recommended for capturing this species.  On the way home most ventured back inside to enjoy the warmth of the saloons and a nice hot drink.

- Megan Whittaker

Common guillemot, black guillemot, European shag, northern fulmar, black-legged kittiwake, black-backed gull, glaucous gull, herring gull, northern gannet, eider duck.