Thursday, 19 May 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00 and 14:00 Premium Whale tour 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 Hafsulan: Once again we enjoyed nice conditions out in Faxaflói Bay. It also stayed dry until the end of the tour when the rain started but by that time passengers could move to more sheltered areas. We had a blast today by showing 3 humpback whales, one of which seemed to be an attention seeking teenager because every time we were about to leave it breached (jumped out of the water), it did this about 5 times in total but in very unexpected times so it was difficult to get the camera ready for it. Still it was an amazing behaviour to see.  Eventually we were able to leave to look at the other humpbacks around. All whales were quite close to land today so we had a little time left to have a quick look at the puffins. Lots of puffins to see out in the bay also. A great morning whale watching adventure.

- Megan Whittaker

Report from RIBs: Calm sea and just a bit of wind made nice conditions for whale watching. We started the tour with our regular visit to Engey, one of the islands where Puffins are breeding. After very nice and close look of the puffins and their burrows, we headed out in search of cetaceans. We found a humpback whale! The same individual we've been seeing for the last week - a bit smaller, with a "spiky" back line. This individual was rarely fluking up previous days, so we were very surprised to see it fully breach! We heard it breached few times in front of the big boat, just before we arrived, and were lucky to see it doing it once again just in front of us! We had a very nice encounter with it, watching it from close distance, as the animal approached our boat few times. It seemed the individual was feeding, as it was changing its speed a bit, had irregular lenght of dives and soon we were surrounded with Arctic terns and other marine birds actively fishing. The whale even surfaced up once with its mouth slightly open. When other boats came to the area, we left to try to find other individuals, and possibly other species, but didn't see them. At the end of the tour we drop by to see the same individual once again before leaving toward the harbour. The crew saw 1-2 minke whales further out in the bay, travelling south, but there was no time to reach them. Nevertheless, we returned happy with memories of beautiful encounter with a humpback whale and lots of birds actively fishing next to us.

- Tena Sarcevic 

Report from Hafsulán: WHAT A DAY! The weather was fairly representing Iceland as it was quite changeable along the tour, shifting between clear to grumpy skies, and from sun to rain. The passengers on board were delighted and ready for an adventure. Puffins enthusiasts happily pointing out all the cute little birds on our way out of Reykjavik. It was possible to feel the swell a bit but that did not hold our passengers from enjoying the ride seating on our outside deck, cosily wrapped in our overalls. Suddenly, we could see some blows in the distance, so we sailed there in a straight line. We were delighted to see that there was a humpback whale over there! We could recognize it, it was our recently named as Gustav! but it was not the first time to visit us, it already visited us here in Faxaflói in 2020 and in Akureyri in 2019, nice to see you again Gustav! It was swimming very relaxed at first, just coming up to the surface slowly and pretty close to us. We lost sight of it for a few minutes only to see it suddenly breaching in front of us! It kept this amazing show going as it was tail lobbing, pectoral slapping and then it breached multiple times in a row! In order to follow the code of conduct and as more boats were coming close we left the area and we also enjoyed a variety of birdlife as we had the opportunity to see: gulls, northern gannets, fulmars, terns and our beloved atlantic puffins. 

- Estel Sanchez Cami

Report from the Ribs: The sea was a little messy today due to wind and ground swell colliding from different directions. We headed straight out into the bay where our attention was drawn to a large splash. As we came closer, it became apparent that this was a breaching humpback whale, the same individual from the morning. This whale beached three times and on its last, we were within a close enough proximity to see the body clearly with the pectoral fins flared out at its side. The whale was very curious, choosing to interact with three boats. It swam along the side of these vessels and on one occasion spyhopped within a couple of metres of a smaller boat. We watched from a safe distance, allowing the whale to decide what it wanted to do and not force any interaction. When a couple of vessels left we came in slightly closer and watched it return to more usual behaviour, surfacing for breaths and then diving deeply.

- Mike Smith

Atlantic Puffin, Norther Fulmar, Black Guillemot, Common Guillemot, Black-legged kittiwake, Arctic Tern, Black-headed gull, Black-backed gull, Lesser black-backed gull, Eider duck, Brent goose, Northern gannet, Greylag goose, Arctic skua, Glaucous gull.