Monday, 25 July 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00, 14:00 and 20:00 Premium Whale tours and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00, and 17:00 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 | 13:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 16:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 17:00
• 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 sanitizer is advised. Masks are not mandatory but are recommended in areas where keeping distance from others is not possible.

Report from Eldey: Our adventure today started with very good sea conditions, although it was still a bit cold. As we sailed further from the harbour, we saw some splashes in the distance, and as we came closer to them, we confirmed that these were very active white-beaked dolphins, jumping around and having fun. This pod of about 12 individuals started to bowride, but when they started to go a bit further from us, we decided to leave them alone and look for something else. It didn't take long when we saw a dark back not too far from us, indicating that we had a minke whale around. But we also saw a blow a bit further away and we decided to focus on this. Another blow came out, and we could see a humpback whale! This one went for a deeper dive, but almost at the same time we saw another blow of another one not far from there, still on our front. We came closer to it and it breached right in front of our eyes! At the same area, another group of white-beaked dolphins showed up, performing very high jumps close to us. When the humpback came up again, the dolphins joined it, swimming side by side. After this beautiful sighting, on our way home, we saw another minke whale, very close to our boat and then more dolphins in the distance. A very active morning to start the week!

- Milla Brandao

Report from Hafsulan: It was a slow start this Monday morning but what an end! We set sail on a medium swell, which some people thoroughly enjoyed and others not so much. After sailing into the harbour for a bit we came across a pod of 6 white beaked dolphins! This was not a very active pod and slowly travelled past us. We then continued further on and found another pod of dolphins! This was a much bigger and more active pod consisting of 10 individuals. We had seen a blow in the same direction so were also hoping for something a bit bigger. And then - thar she blows! The humpback whale Liney appeared very close to us! The dolphins were swimming around her and us and a few were jumping as Liney was rolling and showing us her pectoral fins! At the same time a huge smack (group) of jellyfish appeared under the boat and there was so much activity everywhere, we didnt know where to look! When everything calmed down, we slowly turned started making our way back to harbour. We decided to make a quick pitstop at a big flock of birds to see if we could find more cetaceans. Our pitstop paid off and we saw 3 minke whales! One came very close to the boat and we could see its colouration clearly. As I was looking in one direction for our friendly minke, a big splash in the opposite direction! A minke breached! What a wonderful end to a fabulous trip.

- Anna Richter 

Report from Eldey : We started our afternoon sail with some sunshine, it felt like summer for about 10 minutes before the clouds came back again on the horizon. But this does not matter for our whales or dolphins, we were barely 15 minutes in the trip that we spotted our first species : a harbour porpoise swimming closely by the boat. We got to see it nicely while we were passing our puffins islands going out of the harbor. It took some time after that to have our next sighting : a minke whale. We saw it quite close to our vessel and as we continued in the same area spotted 2 white beaked dolphins that started to bow ride, along with several minke whales, probably 3 to 5. As we navigated slowly through the numerous minke whales, we got to enjoy seeing some of them just a few meters away. That is when we heard of a humpback whale in the area, as we approached we had one good look before it decided to change its behaviour, constantly changing direction. Given the behaviour of that animal, definitely not wanting to be around the boats, we decided to quickly leave to respect the cetacean. All in all we had 4 species sighted this afternoon, great.

- Melanie Magnan

Report from Hafsulan: After the nice experience from this morning we were hoping to have similar sightings and went in the same area. The sea conditions were even better with very little wind and swell. We first spotted a pod of white-beaked dolphins that were a bit elusive, not coming very close. We did not insist and continued further out. We started seeing 2 minke whales in the distance and approached them trying to have a better look. They were moving quite fast but could see them a few times. Then we went into another area a bit more west and found 3 more minke whales, with one that was incredibly curious coming very close to us, around the boat for a little while, surfacing with its pointy rostrum right next to us. It was really lovely and a nice feeling to see that the minke was sharing our curiosity for other species. After a while it lost interest and went back to feed We left the area super happy and tried to see if we could spot something in our last minutes. We saw the blow of a humpback whale non-far from us and could have a good look at it before we left.

- Miquel Pons

Report from Eldey: It was 20:30 when we started to sail out in the sun with a really light breeze to try to encounter some wildlife. Barely 20 minutes outside of the harbour we enountered a minke whale. The animal was not shy at all, and let itself be seen for at least a good 10 minutes surfacing at times barely a few meters away from our boat. We then continued our trip and saw in the far distance a breach ... it was a humpback whale. The animal kept on breaching for a while. When we got to the area we noticed 2 other blows, there was 2 other humpback whales in the area, one of which was also breaching. It was on a really calm sea that we got to observe those 3 individual whales for a while, along with at least 2 minke whales appearing around this area. After a nice surfacing sequence of these 3 humpback whales swimming together really close on our starboard side it was already time to head home under that beautiful icelandic midnight sun.

- Eline van Aalderink

Northern Gannet, black-legged kittiwake, Common guillemots, Atlantic puffins, Arctic skua, Manx shearwater, Sooty shearwater, greater and lesser black-backed gull, Arctic tern, storm petrel