Tuesday, 21 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
• 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

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: Very interesting cloudy and rocky morning to be out in the bay today, with strong southerly winds and passengers willing to live a true Icelandic experience. We started the tour with a fata morgana, which is a kind of a mirage that in this case involved a boat that looked like it was floating on the air. The series of sightings started very well, with a humpback whale waiting for us just outside the harbour. This individual was performing dives of about 6 minutes and surfacing a little far from our boat, so as it was tricky to follow we continued our tour by finding three humpbacks close to the lighthouse of Grótta, where they seemed to be feeding. There were two of them swimming together and a third one about 200 meters from the other two. The two of them gave us some very close surfaces, one of them even showing us its huge fluke when going for a deep dive, that was followed by one ovation from our passengers. A few passengers could also spot the third one when suddenly it pectoral slapped, what a show! And the trip continued very well, with about 3 more humpback whales and 4 minke whales to be seen, although the vast majority of them seemed to be busy feeding. Our trip in Faxaflói bay ended beautifully, with a humpback breaching full body right in front of the ship! 

- Estel Sanchez

Report from Elding: We had a cloudy morning with very strong winds and light rain today. After almost an hour looking for our Faxaflói stars, we saw a blow in the distance, with other boats. Getting close to it, we could see a minke whale in front of our boat, surfacing twice before disappearing again. So, we continued our way to a humpback whale that was not that far from us. It was a bit tricky, because its surfacings were quite unpredictable to track, but still, we could spend a while with it. We decided to leave this one alone and go for more blows ahead of us. And we didn't only see one more blow... we saw 3 blows and a breach! There were 3 more humpbacks in the area, and 2 of them were together. It didn't take long to find out what these two were doing: the way they were diving, showing their fluke and even blowing bubbles underwater indicated that they were feeding! Also, the amount of seabirds like kittiwakes and Atlantic puffins around them showed that we were in a very productive area, and we could even track the whales by following the birds. It was amazing to experience behaviours like bubble net, lunge feeding, and also a possible interaction of a minke whale close to these humpbacks. Last but not least, on our way home, we could spot a pod of at least 6 harbour porpoises close to the harbour! The bay was full of life and we were quite excited for having such an active morning!

- Milla Brandao

Common guillemot, Atlantic puffin, arctic tern, herring gull, black-backed gull, icelandic gull, glaucus gull, black-legged kittiwake, eider duck, northern fulmar, northern gannet, arctic skua, manx shearwater.

Report from Eldey: Today in the afternoon we had a very rough sea, comparing to the morning, so it started to be worse with the rain, a strong wind and a very low visibility. We travelled all the bay and we managed to see 2 harbour porpoises for few seconds. Only 2 passengers saw them. Then we saw some minke whales but only few of them and very tricky as it lasted only for few seconds. As most of the passengers did not see the animals, we gave them complementary tickets so they can come back whenever they want and hopefully having the chance to see more whales, dolphins and porpoises in the next trip.

- Enorha Guimard