Saturday, 6 August 2022

Today we will be operating on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00, 13:00, 14:00 and 19:00 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
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 11:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 15:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 16:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 19:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 20:00

Report from Eldey: Very nice sea conditions this morning in Faxafloi bay. As soon as we left the harbour, 1 very elusive harbour porpoise appeared once at the surface but it was too quick for the passenger to see it. A bit later A little foggy at some point for few minutes, was giving a kind of magical atmosphere as just after the fog went down we started to see a lot of different species in the area. First we saw at least 3 minke whales in the area, very elusive, a bit far from the boat but the passengers could see them as the sea was very flat. Few minutes later as we were trying to get closer to the minke, 1 humpback whale just appeared right in front of the boat. The animal was doing several shallow dives and was very relax at the surface. At some point, the animal did a deep dives by showing its beautiful fluke! After 15 minutes with animal, we decided to leave it alone and tried to find other species. On the was we saw other harbour porpoises, 2 other minke whales and also a pod of around 7 white beaked dolphins. These ones were more relaxing with us and then they started to change their behaviour. They were bowriding on our boat and then travelling. We kept going our way and reached another area with 1 minke whale feeding and then started to head back to Reykjavik.

- Enorha Guimard

Report from Eldey: Given the previous trip´s sightings, we were excited as we left port with the rare Icelandic sun cooking our faces. Passing a minke whale travelling quickly away from us, a scattering of moon jelly´s and the odd puffin we eventually saw what we thought looked like a humpback whale logging on the water´s surface. Upon arriving at the place we saw it we could not seem to find the animal anymore. However while looking we managed to find some lovely white beaked dolphins, that decided to come right up to our boat and say hello. 14 dolphins including 2 calves and 2 juveniles toyed with our boat, keeping everyone on their toes running from one side to the next to see the dolphins leaping and twisting out of the water. After spending some time with the dolphins we decided to leave them alone and see if we could find something else. After approaching a large flock of birds we began to see 3 minke whales feeding at the surface, one of which was a small juvenile. The whales surfaced regularly sending birds flying and water splashing as they fed, before splitting up as we left them to head back to port.

Liam van Walsum

Report from Hafsúlan: With a calm wind and low swell, we had perfect weather for whale watching. The flat seas made it easy to spot any cetacean from far away, and as a result we were able to spot many individuals of many species. Our tour started with a pod of 3-4 harbour porpoises who surfaced a few times to allow us to catch a quick glimpse of their small bodies. Next up, we found approximately 10 white-beaked dolphins swimming next to each other and it was very impressive when they all surfaced synchronously. We left the dolphins as they seemed to swim a bit away from us, and we had already spotted a minke whale in the distance. The minke whale turned out to be in an area with a few other individuals, and over some time and in that wider location we saw probably 5 individuals. One minke whale came incredibly close to our boat and it was so spectacular to see this large cetacean take regular breaths at the surface. On our way further out to explore what else was out there, we encountered the same pod of dolphins who were now more active, some individuals leaping and lifting their head up as the group travelled. Further on we encountered a different pod of approximately 10 dolphins, and we also crossed paths with 2 or 3 more minke whales and 3-4 harbour porpoises before we went back to Reykjavík.

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Elding: as is very icelandic, the weather changed a lot from the morning and afternoon. A dense fog surrounded us, restricting the visibility to 200 metres, or even less. On the other hand, the sea conditions were very good, with few high waves that rocked the ship a bit but it wasn't an uncomfortable sail. Also there was little wind and just a little bit of rain, but only once we were returning to the harbor. The sightings started out great with a minke whale popping out of the water right out of the harbor, 20 minutes into the sail. We then moved on and found two nice harbor porpoises, which were unusually hanging out really close to the ship, leaping and doing baby jumps! Our sail then proceeded and we found some nice minke whales popping up in our surroundings, giving us some nice sightings, as some of them came quite close to the ship.

-Francesco Golin

Greater and lesser black backed gull, common eider, Atlantic puffin, common guillemot, northern fulmer, black legged kittiwake, herring gull, northern gannet, Brünnich's guillemot, Manx shearwater, storm petrol, sooty shearwater. razorbills, Iceland gull, northern gannet