Friday, 27 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, 13:00 and 17:00 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
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 17:00

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 Hafsúlan: Sunshine and low wind made for good conditions to go whale watching this morning. We headed towards an area with many birds, hoping that the fish in the area had also attracted some larger animals. Out of the blue, a humpback whale came up about 50 meters away from our boat! The whale was challenging to follow in the beginning as it dove rather long and resurfaced far away from us, but later it came up much more regularly and frequently, and also a lot closer to our boat! It was incredible to see the bright white pectoral fins as the humpback lingered closely underneath the surface. After this beautiful sighting we continued further out into the bay where we spotted another blow. We waited for ten minutes until the blow was visible again, but then the individual disappeared for a long time again so we decided to leave it to do its own thing and headed back to Reykjavík. 

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from the RIBs: The sea conditions were a little choppy this morning but this was made up for by the sunshine! We headed into the bay with two boats and not long after leaving we heard from one of the other boats that they had spotted something, We headed to the area just outside Hvalfjörður (Whale Fjord) and waited. We didn't have to wait for long before we spotted the large blow of a humpback whale! We were able to follow this individual for a while but it kept us on our toes. It was moving around the area a little erratically, probably feeding on fish below the surface. A couple of times we were able to see its tail as it went for deep dives. After watching for a while, more whale watching boats started to join us. Not wanting to overcrowd this one individual we continued with our tour and surveyed the southern area of Faxaflói. We saw a couple of flocks of birds but unfortunately no more cetaceans. Our time started to run out so we headed back towards the puffin islands and then in to the harbour.

- Emily Erskine

Report from Hafsulan: We had wonderful weather when we set sail at 13:00, sunshine and very little clouds! Lots of flocks of birds which is always a good sign when whale watching. We saw a big splash in the distance and it was a humpback whale slapping its' pectoral fin! Upon approach it stopped this behaviour and we stayed with this individual for a bit. Eventually we moved on and very slowly made our way back to Reykjavik in the hopes to find some more species. Unfortunately we didnt encounter anymore cetaceans but enjoyed the beautiful views on way home! 

- Anna Richter

Report from RIBs: The wind calmed down since our morning tours and the sun was shining. We went out with 3 of our boats. We found a humpback whale. It was a bit smaller individual but very nice to watch since if was fluking up on almost every dive. The dives were irregular in duration, but we managed to spot it and observe. In few moments, it surfaced so close to one of our boats that we could see its white pectoral fins and the bumps on its head. After this encounter, we continued our search. Although we searched on both north and south of Faxafloi bay, we haven't found any other cetaceans.

- Tena Sarcevic

Report from Hafsúlan: we had a very sunny afternoon, encountering a humpback whale that was a bit elusive at first. We took a while to keep track on this particular whale because turns out it was quite fast! It performed deeper dives and suddenly, when it came to the surface again, it was way ahead of us. Later, she decided to slow down and show off its fluke when it was about to take a deeper dive, but didn't take too much time underwater before coming up again. Surprisingly, it breached twice and, when we were about to leave, the whale literally waved its huge pectoral fin, as a waving goodbye. On the way back, while trying to spot something else, we saw a few puffins and a northern gannet flying gracefuly. A very peaceful day in Faxaflói bay.

- Milla Brandão

Eider duck, atlantic puffin, raven, greater black-backed gull, herring gull, kittiwake, northern gannet, lesser black-backed gull