Thursday, 7 April 2022

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. 

Report from Eldey: Today the wind was blowing from the north so it was extremely cold, but the weather was incredible  with a perfectly clear sky and a beautiful sun. The sea was choppy when we arrived in the good areas but the swell was not to high. We found 6-7 white-beaked dolphins or probably that they found us first, coming very close to the boat, near the bow. After thoses first minutes of the sighting they seemed to lose interest and kept their distance with us. They were milling, swimming very close to each other and seemed to be resting. We could see there silhouette through the water when they were taking the waves. We continued and turned toward the city of Akranes. We saw that there was many birds there so we decided to have a look. We spotted a first blow then a second and a third. There was 3-4 humpback whales in this area! We saw those humpbacks surfacing non far from the boat sometimes even at 30 meters from us. They lookeed very calm, feeding and going for short dives. We enjoyed this wonderful moment with those whales and after a last beautiful fluke dive we went back to Reykjavik, admiring the landscape. 

- Miquel Pons

Report from RIB: What an amazing morning we had on our RIB! The sea was a bit choppy but we managed to motor into sheltered areas, and thankfully the cetaceans had also decided to stay in the calmer parts of the bay today. First, we saw a pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins who were foraging and occassionaly swimming right underneath our boat. The bright sunshine reflected on their smooth skin and highlighted how beautiful these animals are, especially from up close on the RIB. We next moved towards Akranes, where our larger boat Eldey had spotted a few humpback whales. When we arrived, we were thrilled to see the blows of four different humpback whales in the area! We almost didn't know where to look with all of the blows and humpy backs and flukes coming out of the water - an incredible day!

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from RIB: We went straight to the area where we saw the four humpback whales in the morning, and in the afternoon the sun had brightened even more. We saw two of the humpback whales swimming closely to each other, the same pair as we had seen last Saturday. We were not sure what the whales were doing, as there was not a lot of fish around us and they were surfacing rather irregularly. We enjoyed these whales, especially when they came incredibly close to our boat and we could see every barnacle and each marking on their bodies. After having stayed with this duo for a while we decided to search in another area and we found a different individual. This humpback showed us the beautiful underside of the fluke right next to our boat. As we wanted to leave to Reykjavík, the whale lobtailed and showed us the spectacular view of its strong peduncle. On the way back to the harbour we encountered a pod of four or five harbour porpoises, and then we ended the tour with some fast-paced city sightseeing.

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Eldey: This afternoon had fantastic weather for whale watching - as evidenced by our early sighting of harbour porpoises. Their little black bodies were very evident against the mirror-like surface. But we were soon distracted from the harbour porpoises by a pod of about 8-9 white-beaked dolphins. They were quite active, swimming around and even there was one individual that was spy-hopping which was super cool. They also got very close to the boat and seemed to even be watching us at times. After that they continued maybe looking for food or fishing, as some birds were following them, so we decided to continue and sail on to find something else. Not long into our search, we spotted a humpback whale! As we got closer this turned out to be two individuals actually, who were swimming close to one another. They were great, sometimes surfacing very close to the boat. Staying with them for a while, we then again decided to move on and look for more wildlife. Venturing further out into the bay, we found an area full of birdlife, and there we came across another humpback whale. This beautiful giant surfaced a couple of times and we even got to see its black patched fluke. It seemed that it was having lunch. Soon after we were by another humpback whale who continued to follow the active theme of the day and seemed to be feeding in the area as it was swimming erratically. This last encounter made our tour even better! Another great afternoon on the sea!

- Estel Sanchez Cami

Northern fulmar, eider duck, long-tailed duck, great northern diver, common guillemot, greater black-backed gull, glaucous gull, black-legged kittiwake, black-headed gull,, herring gull, atlantic puffin, northern gannet.