Thursday, 30 June 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00, 12:00, 14:00 and 20:00 Premium Whale tours and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 10:00, 13:00, 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 | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 12:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• 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. Masks are not mandatory but are recommended in areas where keeping distance from others is not possible.

Report from Elding: PERFECT day at sea today. The sea was as smooth as whale skin, and there was barely any wind. The only complaint I'd raise is that it was kinda cold-ish, but honestly I've had worse in the past so I'm just gonna say that it was just a GREAT day to check out some whales! And that's exactly what we did: we started out great with a brief sighting of harbor porpoises, which accompanied us for a moment out of Kollafjörður. We then sighted a humpback whale, which was very laid back and was resting - or maybe even sleeping - amidst a lot of minke whales which popped up all around, from time to time. We then proceeded to find another, larger humpback, which was also quite relaxed, but then showed us the fluke and went for a deep dives. We then continued to sail out into Faxaflói bay, sighting some other minke on the way. we then encountered a pod of 6-8 white beaked dolphins, which gave us a beautiful sighting by repeatedly jumping out of the water. The pod included two enthusiastic calves, which were very happy to be in the ocean that day, emulating the adults by leaping too out of the water with several baby-jumps.

-Francesco Golin

Report from Eldey: Weather today was a double edged sword; there was little wind so the sea was extremely flat with no white caps, but because of this wind the haze on the horizon was not blowing away which reduced our visibility slightly. However despite this we managed to find some 3 minke whales, 2 of which were alternating breathing and diving together very slowly. This is rare for minke's who are are often very quick when they come up to breathe, spending as little time on the surface, but these ones took their time, letting us see them clearly and get good photos. As we began to leave them however we found another minke whale lunge feeding, lunging at schools of fish right at the surface of the water, a feeding technique not commonly seen in Faxafloi bay. Moving on however we managed to see a humpback surrounded by other boats, and just before the whale we discovered a pod of 12 white beaked dolphins with 2 juveniles or babies present. Something must have been in the water though because again these animals were extremely passive, resting at the surface before decided to perform a rare behaviour known as milling, a meeting of sorts, before changing to travelling behaviour and beginging to leave us. Sadly we did have to start leaving, but out of nowhere a humpback whale reared up out of the water and dove in front of us. Deciding to hang around a little longer with this humpback we managed to see if coming up to breathe 3 times before diving, but eventually due to time constraints we did have to leave. On our journey back however we managed to see another 3 minke whales, suddenly acting much more regularly, taking quick breathes and moving at a much faster speed. We saw many lazy animals today including 1 humpback whale, 12 white beaked dolphins, and about 6-7 minke whales, a lucky day.

- Liam van Walsum

Report from Eldey: Beautiful landscapes, almost no swell and zero wind gave us the best whale watching conditions to spot the contrasted black-backs of the animals and enjoy the scenery of the Faxaflói bay. It was a fantastic tour with about 6 minke whales still in the same spot we left them, so we got to spend some more quality time with them and for the most part we had them to ourselves. A pod of about 8 curious white-beaked dolphins were the stars of the tour. Jumping, flipping and twirling, what a show! A peaceful humpback whale escorted us on the way back home. As the conditions were just so amazing, the tour practically guided itself and we mostly basked in happiness on our way back to port.

- Estel Sanchez

Report from Eldey: the perfect weather that we had during the day continued during the evening, with perfectly still waters and barely any wind. We only had a little bit of drizzle from time to time, but nothing that could prevent us from staying outside. The tour started out great with a quick sighting of some harbour porpoises between the islands of Akurey and Engey, while close to Seltjarnarnes cape a humpback whale was seen lunge feeding, with many birds flying excitedly around it. We then continued out journey into Faxaflói bay, spotting many minke whales on our way. We then spotted another humpback whale which, like the first one, also appeared to be feeding, but deeper into the water, as it was taking frequent long dives.

-Francesco Golin

Common guillemot, black guillemot, atlantic puffin, arctic tern, herring gull, lesser black-backed gull, greater black-backed gull, northern fulmar, northern gannet.