Saturday, 11 June 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00 and 12:00 Premium Whale tours and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00 and 14:00. 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 | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 12:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 17:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 20:00

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: After roughly half an hour sailing we had our first encounter, we found a humpback whale. It was close to an area where there were many seabirds fishing around and the humpback was clearly going for fish as it was doing lot of direction changes, at times coming right towards us. Soon after we could discover that there were 3 other humpback whales in the area. We decided to stay with one of them and this animal was performing dives of about 4 minutes and eventually surfacing less than 50 meters away. After enjoying the presence of this massive creature, it was time to go home and the way back was a pleasure as we surfed the waves. What a pleasure to be out there today!

- Estel Sanchez
 

Report from Elding: We left the sunny, calm harbour for a rather windy bay today. Among the whitecaps, we suddenly saw an enormous white splash - this was not a white-cap, this was a breaching humpback whale! From the distance we could see the whale's full body come out of the water, an impressive sight even from far away. Once we reached the area the whale had calmed down and stayed underwater for more than ten minutes. Our patience payed off though, and once we found the humpback whale again it showed us the fluke and scarred dorsal fin many times from up close. This humpback whale was a small one, one that we didn't recognise based on the unique pattern underneath the fluke so it was exciting to get to know this individual. We then cruised with the sunshine warming our faces and with beautiful views of the scenery before heading back to Reykjavík. 

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Eldey: The wind was howling and the sea was spraying, so we stocked up on tablets and headed out to sea to see some whales. Within 30 minutes of leaving we met our first humpback whale, this individual was very relaxed and was diving for food in front of us, with several fluke ups. However after 3 more boats arrived we decided to leave this poor whale alone and go looking elsewhere. Having seen whales out in the bay earlier this morning we decided to head out in that direction, however after an hour of travel and arriving at the same spot as this morning, we still hadn´t seen anything aside from some false alarms caused by sea spray in the wind. Suddenly large splashes became visible 700m from the boat, as a second humpback whale was tail slapping the water. As we approached however a third humpback whale fully breached out of the water right to the left of the second. Sadly however we couldn´t stay long as we had to go back eventually, and soon after we arrived the whales decided to begin diving for food, se we began to slowly leave the whales and head rush back to port in time, with a total of 3 humpback whales and at least another 2 spouts on the horizon from unknown whales.

- Liam van Walsum

Report from Elding: beautiful day at sea today, with a lot of sun and passing clouds. Unfortunately, the sea was very choppy and windy. A real Icelandic adventure! Our sail at sea felt a little bit like a roller coaster, but fortunately nobody got sea sick. We didn't take too long to to find a humpback whale, which was feeding: going for dives, changing direction very often, and we even could see its throat being inflated with all the water and prey it engulfed. And, surprise surprise, white beaked dolphins joined! Interacting with the whale and possibly cooperating with it in order to feed on the school of fish or krill, or maybe picking up the bits of food left over by the whale. Then we had to return back as we didn't want to disturb them too much. On the way back, the trip was a bit less rocky, and we saw another pod of dolphins, which seemed to be feeding, judging by the Arctic terns dropping into the sea.

-Francesco Golin

Eider duck, northern fulmar, atlantic puffin, arctic tern, greater black-backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, common guillemot, herring gull, kittiwake