Monday, 11 July

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00, 14:00, 16:00 and 20:00 Premium Whale tours and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 14:00 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
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 16:00
• 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 Eldey: Today the weather was good for whale-watching with very little wind and a calm sea, giving us a great visibility on the bay. The sky was covered in clouds but it was a dry tour. We went quite far before we spotted the first animal, a minke whale that was quite elusive so we continued finding more and more minke whales everywhere in the bay during the tour, around 10 in total. We also spotted a humpback whale that was lunge-feeding many times, swimming on the side or even on the back to catch a lot of fish at the surface, with hundreds of birds around. When it went for a dive we recognize Davy Jones II, a whale that we are seeing since last year. We continued. After a while a pod of 3-4 white-beaked dolphins got close to the humpback, probably feeding on the fish that was escaping from the whale. They quickly disappeared and we stayed a bit longer with the humpback. Then we left the area to quickly check on an other humpback also well known called Mariupol, and we took the direction of the harbour. During the way back we found an area with 3 minke whales feeding and a pod of 5-6 white-beaked dolphins. What a nice morning trip!

- Miquel Pons

Report from Hafsulan : This tour barely could get any better. 30 minutes after sailing off we got to catch a glimpse to our first minke whale. We stopped a bit to try to have a nice look of this individual minke whale, but it disappeared as fast as it had appear so we set sail toward an area where we knew there would be a bigger animal. It is 10 minutes later that we saw a Humpback whale. We arrived, got a nice fluke dive, and then not long after : a breach. We enthusiastically observed that individual humpback whale, breaching several times close to our vessel, and pectoral slapping and turning at the surface. During the sighting of this humpback whale we also have noticed a few minke whales surfacing here and there, probably 3 to 5 in the same area close to the boat as well. After some minutes with the humpback whale, we got lucky enough to have a pod of 4 - 5 white beaked dolphins that decided to come for a brief moment to bow ride before not being interested anymore in our boat. So 3 species at the same time in the same sighting, quite a record. We then continued our sail heading back toward Reykjavik and got to have nice views over the bay but also on 2 minke whales that appeared really close to us, and then another blow of a humpback whale, This other individual humpback whale appeared to be quite elusive so we decided to go away, anyways it was our time to go home. What a great day 2 humpback whales, 4 or 5 white beaked dolphins and over 10 minke whales, it rarely gets better than that.

- Melanie Magnan

Report from Eldey: We had a whale of time this afternoon! We were a very full tour, which means lots of eyes to help spot whales. As we headed further out of the harbour, we saw a minke whale! Minkes are very fast and elusive but we saw this one a few times as it stayed fairly close to the boat. Just as we decided to head on - another one! This ended up happening a few times and I lost track of how many minke whales we saw. We pottered on, enjoying the odd minke whales pop up, then we saw a blow in the distance! And another! There were 3 humpback whales. Two on our right and one on our left, as the pair was already quite crowded by boats we chose the one on our left and were not disappointed. It turned out to be Mariupole and it showed us its fluke multiple times and even though it went for longer deep dives we were entertained by so many birds! Three artic skuas were flying around and harrassing all the artic terns that came incredibly close to the boat - it was quite the show. When Mariupole headed on, we did too. We continued on and quickly found 5 or 6 white beaked dolphins accompanied by another humpback whale! They were feeding along with another hectic flock of birds, this one mainly consisted of different gulls as well as gannets that were plunge-diving! After all that we ran out of time and made our way back home.

- Anna Richter

Report from Hafsúlan: Our adventure today started with a minke whale within less than 20 min of the trip, very close to the harbour! We saw it surfacing twice, but then we decided to go further away and continue our trip. We went to an area where we had 2 humpback whales, both going for deeper dives. We focused in one and we were very patience with this one, while it was taking her time to dive for about 7 minutes and then coming to the surface again for a breathing before another fluke dive. We decided to check the other humpback out, that was also surfacing very calmly and going for more deeper dives. However, all of a sudden, this one breached, making a big splash and surprising everyone! It was incredible and we waited to see if it was going to do it again. However, it went for another row of fluke dives and we went to an area where we saw some splashes in the distance, with a lot of birds flying around and diving like crazy. The splashes were made by another minke whale, fast as they are. There were at least 4 minke whales there and we started to lose count of them. Another humpback showed up in the same area, joining the party. It was definitely a feast!

- Milla Brandão

Report from Eldey: We started the tour with many northern fulmar following the boat, gliding in the wind. A north wind was picking up making the sea a little bit more choppy but still easy-going. We went in the same area than in previous tour and after a bit of patient searching we found Mariupol the humpback whale again. We stayed quite a long time with it because it was a bit irregular in its movement, diving for different periods of time and changing direction which made the sighting a bit challenging. We still manage to see its fluke dive a few times and to approach it. We also found many Atlantic puffins, Arctic skuas, Arctic tern, northern gannets and guillemots. We went back comfortably to the harbour with the wind in our back.

- Miquel Pons

Northern fulmar, Arctic tern, Atlantic puffin, great cormorant, greater black-backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, herring gull, glaucous gull, black guillemot, eider duck, arctic skua, great skua, black-headed gull, sooty shearwater.

Report from Eldey: we went out for the mysteries that we could find on the midnight tours; sometimes they are actually quite magical. Ours was not different! We went for the same area we were earlier, when we saw 2 humpback whales, but they were not there anymore. Instead, we have found 2 white-beaked dolphins, that were a bit elusive but we could still see them a few times. After that, we continued our trip when we saw two big flocks of seabirds, feeding on the surface and... not alone! We saw a minke whale amongst the first flock, feeding with them. Later, we saw one more minke whale, but only coming to the surface once before it disappearing again. And then the magic happened: a pod of 6 white beaked dolphins jumping at the distance. Very playful and sociable, they didn't stopped jumping when we came closer to them and they actually interacted with us, surrounding us. It was amazing to see them so close, showing off their bodies outside the water to remind us how big these dolphins are. We had a lot of fun trying to track them and taking very nice pictures of them. This, combined with a beautiful midnight sunset, made this tour magical.

- Milla Brandao