Tuesday, 28 June 2022

Today we will be operating on Premium Whale tours and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 9.00, 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.

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• 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: we couldn't ask for a better sea condition in the beggining of the trip! The sea was flat and the visibility was amazing. Not even half an hour in, we had our first encounter, a minke whale close to Reykjavik, fast as they are. We decided to look for something bigger, since minkes are usually very tricky to follow. And right away, we saw at the same area a pod of 5 white beaked-dolphins! For our surprise, they had a calf among the group, which is always something amazing to experience. We tracked them for a while, but since they didn't seem like they wanted to interact, we decided to give them some space. It didn't take long until we found another minke whale! However, we have seen a blow in the distance and we decided to follow our instincts. And indeed, we saw a humpback whale in the area, feeding and being followed by many seabirds. Our fish-finder in the boat indicaded that this area was full of fishes, and in fact we even saw a fishing boat close to the whale. This humpback showed us it's beautiful pectoral fin and started rolling in the water. The sudden light rain and fog didn't make us miss more blows and we encountered 2 more minke whales close to each other. On the way back, we saw at least 3 minke whales, which kept us busy for the rest of the trip with such enthusiastic passengers spotting them!

- Milla Brandão

Report from Elding : Today we knew the seas were gonna be great, and the previsions did not disappoint. Even though we started to sail off with a bit of rain, it slowly stopped and we could enjoy the calm waters from the top deck. After not so much time we spotted some white beaked dolphins on the horizon, it was a big pod of about 20 individuals with at least 2 calves. They were swimming toward our boat and started bow riding. We observed them for at least a good 10 minutes riding our waves and jumping and feeding in front of us. We then decided to sail off and spotted quite soon enough a minke whale. It disappeared, we then continued our ride toward an area we knew we had an other species of whale. We got to the area and spotted a humpback whale, we saw it surfacing a few times before it suddenly stopped to rest at the surface close to our vessel. We then stayed around, observing that whale sleeping at the surface of the water for a few moments. It was incredible to witness that animal extremely calm around us and switching to a sleeping mode. After some time we decided to leave the animal to rest, off we went to see what more we could observe around. It did not take too long to observe a minke whale, that we could stay with for a while. Then we continued again, and another minke, and then left that one to find 3 minke whales together closer to the harbor. It was a great minke day, but our time was up, so we decided to sail back toward the harbor. What a great day for whale watching 

- Melanie Magnan

Report from Elding: Today we had a great day! The day started with calm seas and little wind and soon enough just 10 min out of the bay we saw our first minke whale in the distance. This one did only surface a couple of times but we observed some more minkes further in the distance and also got the chance to see some of them surface in front of the boat. Then after leaving these nice but elusive creatures we encountered a pod of 7-10 white beaked dolphins in the distance and made our way to them. The dolphins were curious and came close to the boat. We had good opportunities to take nice pictures and the headed off to a humpback whale further out in the bay. This individual showed us the fluke a couple of times and in the end even multiple breaches! Then as an added bonus another pod of dolphins joined us in watching the whale and jumped out of the water and rid the bow with us. On our way back we spotted another humpback whale and another couple of minkes. In beautiful sunshine we rode back to port with big smiles on our faces.

- Cindy Schwenk

Report from Eldey: We left a grey Reykjavik behind and went for our search of whales. After only 20min we saw our first minke whale! My own personal record, we sailed a few minutes longer and saw another one! We decided to continue heading out as we were still close to the harbour and wanted to see what else we would find. After watching birds and enjoying the sun that came to joined, we saw a small pod of white beaked dolphins! It 5/6 individuals that were very active and breaching! Shortly after we spotted a blow further along and went to investigate - two humpback whales resting! What a trip! We headed back to the harbour, still spotting minke whales as we went and enjoying the sun.

- Anna Richter

Report from Elding: We had a little bit of rain before the tour but as soon as we left the harbour we did not see a single drop falling on our heads. The sea was calm and the weather with a great visibility. After some time sailing we started seeing blows far away. We headed in that direction to find a very nice and friendly humpback whale. The animal was going toward Reykjavik and we could see its tail a couple of times while it was going for a deep dive. It was not going for very long dives and was easy to follow. We kept a very respectful distance but the animal was curious and came toward us, first behind us, then extremely close on our right, turning to the left and smoothly going under our boat, making our passengers shake of excitement. It resurfaced in front still very close and went for a dive. It was a wonderful moment. We left this whale to continue and found quickly a minke whale. This time it was challenging to follow this whale, it was only surfacing briefly before disappearing for a few minutes. We could spot it maybe 5 times before we lost it. Meanwhile looking for the minke we saw again the previous humpback whale. When it dove we went in direction of big splashes that were far away. A humpback whale was breaching! We saw the big splashes 3 times and then only small splashes made by the animal that was pectoral slapping. When we arrived closer the humpback was very calm and going for shallow dives. We had to head back, crossing another humpback whale during the traject, the 3th of the tour. We stopped for a few minutes a went back to the harbour while admiring a wonderful sunset, with a rainbow in front of us. A great midnight tour.

- Miquel Pons

Northern gannet, northern fulmar, Atlantic puffin, common guillemot, great skua, lesser black-backed gull, greater black-backed gull, herring gull, black-headed gull, Arctic tern, Arctic skua, eider duck, European shag