Thursday, 16 June 2022

Today we will be operating on our lovely vessels Eldey and Elding for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 14:00, 17:00 and 20:30 Classic Whale Watching tours. Make sure to dress appropriately for the tours as it is always colder on sea than on land. If you are prone to seasickness, please consult with our team prior to boarding.

• 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
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 20:30

Report from Eldey: Although the sky was overcast and it was raining a bit in the beginning of our morning tour, the southerly wind was not too cold and we had a pleasant sail out into the bay. Not too far out we already spotted two separate blows in the distance, one of them right underneath a rainbow. Taking the rainbow as a sign, we headed towards the blow that we had seen in that direction to find that the blow belonged to a humpback whale. The whale was surfacing unpredictably and staying underwater for more than 5 minutes, to come back up and only spend a short amount of time at the surface. As this whale clearly only had breakfast on its mind, we decided to head out further into the bay. There, we spotted a large blow, followed by a much smaller blow: could this be a mother and calf? We came closer to find that this was one of the mother-calf pairs that we had seen a couple of weeks back. It was great to see that they were still healthy, and this time the calf was even being rather playful by rolling onto its belly and blowing some bubbles. At some point during the sightings, the two whales came up within meters of the boat and it was so incredible to see the active calf performing from up close and to take in the impressive size of the mother. How lucky that they decided to include us in this special moment and to have seen four different humpback whales during this trip. 

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Hafsúlan: Amongst the true summer Reykjavik weather, a scattering of sunshine piercing through distant towering clouds spitting out rain below them, we set out in considerably good visibility to find us some gentle giants. Along the way we met many bird species gracefully cruising past our boat, and the not so graceful puffins struggling to keep flight. A few distant blows caught our attention but the animals already had a number of boats around them, and thus we decided to move on. However a pod of 8 white beaked dolphins could be seen bow riding another whale watching boat and so we headed in that direction to see them. As we neared them the dolphins began to show resting behaviours and decided to line up perfectly for us in line with our boat for some awesome photos; although sadly I was busy changing the camera battery to take many. Shortly after we managed to spot a whale blow and headed in that direction found a humpback whale that was feeding, taking long dives after a few breaths on the surface. Shortly after we found another individual who was spending a little longer on the surface, so we headed there to maximise the time we could see the animals. However after some time with us on the surface, too many boats arrived and we decided to leave so as to not stress this animal out too much. However we heard reports of a pair of whales on the way back to Reykjavik and decided to try our luck there, spotting one of them early and following it. It was also taking abnormally long dives however, but we got some lovely views of its tail flukes as it dove and it surfaced again very close to us. Waving goodbye to this beautiful beast we left for port, having run out of time, seeing in total 5 humpback whales, 3 close and 2 in the distance, and a pod of 8 white beaked dolphins.

-Liam van Walsum
 

Report from Eldey: When we started to leave Reykjavik, the sea conditions was more rough than the morning but we had all our eyes open to try to spot any whales, dolphins or porpoises. Some people of the crew saw some blows once or twice but we did not manage to see the animals again. After staying few minutes, we started to check other areas in the bay and still saw some blows but only one time. Looked like these animals were a bit more tricky to find but with all these white cabs and the wind, it was a bit more complicated to spot them. After at least 1 hours and 30 mins to check the bay, other whale watching operators in the area warned us about a whale so we came to them and we finally saw our first animal, 1 humpback whale. This was actually one individual that we know quite well. Her name is Liney and she is one of the very social humpback who is always showing very active surface behaviour. She mostly showed her fluke and pectoral fins at the surface very close to our boat. After this very nice show from Liney, it was time to head back to Reykjavik

- Enorha Guimard

Report from Hafsulan: The weather did not change much from the morning, and as we had some great success on our morning tour, we knew already where to start looking for them. We suddenly saw really huge spouts further out. There was a humpback whale. We could not wait to come closer and where following the movement of the animals but spotting its blow when we realized that there was not one but 2 individuals. The first animal had a very falcate dorsal fin, and the other one had some orca markings on it. It was great as we could take some good identification pictures. We also saw some northern gannets flying around and many other seabirds as black-backed gulls, kittiwakes and maaaany puffins.

- Estel Sanchez

Report from Eldey: Although there was some swell and wind, our captain sailed us in such a way that we hardly felt it and had a very pleasant boat trip this evening. We came across a humpback whale after about an hour of sailing, but the individual was surfacing very unpredictably and diving rather long. After having been patient for some time and seeing a few blows and sometimes the dorsal fin of the individual and one other humpback a bit further out, we decided to sail further out into the bay. That turned out to be a good decision because very soon after we had a much more exciting sighting just a few minutes later. A humpback whale mother and calf were socialising, throwing their peduncle and at some point even pectoral slapping. While they were diving, we still had plenty of other things to see as in the distance we could see the full body of another humpback whale lifting itself out of the water, followed by high splashes several times. As if that wasn´t enough, about 5 white-beaked dolphins also decided to say hello by showing up just 20 meters from the boat. Although the dolphins and breaching humpback disappeared after some time, we were able to stay with the mother and calf for long and at some point they surprised us within a meters from the boat - incredible. After such an unforgettable sighting we sailed back to Reykjavík, where we encountered our 5th humpback whale: one that was lifting both of its pectorals out of the water and then, as a final goodbye, came up right next to the boat. 

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Elding: It was a beautiful evening on sailing out into the bay, we only had a little swell and the sea reflected the colors of the clouds in a perfect way. The first sighting were 2-3 harbour porpoises that we passed by on the way out. Next we saw a minke whale, this rather elusive animal surfaced a fair few times but unfortunately, it gave us a wide birth and so we could only watch it from a distance. We headed out into the bay to see what else we could find. Not long after a pod of 6 white-beaked dolphins were spotted in the distance, these we were able to get a good look at as they surfaced many times all the way around the boat, two of them even swam right next to the boat letting us see its beautiful patterned body from beneath the waters surface! While watching these curious dolphins for sometime we realized that there was also a humpback whale in the area, this whale surfaced many times and gradually came closer allowing us a closer look at this species. This individual was very active: tail-breaching, flip slapping and rolling. What a show! It was then time to head back to the harbour with rain but with huge smiles in our faces. It was a lovely tour to end the day. 

- Estel Sanchez

Common guillemot, black guillemot, atlantic puffin, arctic tern, arctic skua, herring gull, black-backed gull, black-legged kittiwake, eider duck, northern fulmar, northern gannet