Sunday, 21 August 2022

Today we will be operating on our lovely vessels Eldey and Hafsúlan for the Classic Whale Watching tours. All premium tours have been cancelled due to rough sea and strong winds. Make sure to dress appropriately for the tours as it is always colder on sea than on land.

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 10:00, 13:00, 14:00 and 19:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00 and 16:00

Report from Eldey: Leaving harbour just after some stormy seas the day before, we were hoping the rough seas would have helped the stir up the nutrients in the water to support lots of whale food. However with such little birds in the area I was beginning to feel sceptical that we would find anything, when suddenly a minke whale appeared right beside us, surfacing another 4 times on our left hand side before disappearing under the waves. It wouldn´t be the last however and after chasing ghostly blows in the wind and flocks of feeding birds for half an hour we finally discovered another minke whale underneath some diving northern gannets. Almost as soon as we turned the boat to it to approach a pod of 6 white beaked dolphins appeared! The began bow riding the boat and leaping out of the water in front of us, before heading over to go say hi to my colleagues on a small RIB. Sadly the magic had to end however and we began heading back to port.

- Liam van Walsum

Report from Hafsúlan: The sun was shining and the waves were splashing with occasional scattered white caps here and there. We sailed across the bay admiring the beautiful view over the Faxaflói bay and suddenly we spotted a minke whale close to the boat. We saw it surface a couple of times accompanied by lot of OH's and AH´s from the passengers. This minke disappeared on us as quickly as it came but some others also came up to the surface, so that we probably saw 4 or more individual minke whales in total. After leaving the minkes to be on their own we were surprised by a small pod of not more than 5 white-beaked dolphins appearing all around our boat and bow riding to the joy of all of us. This was a very nice highlight of the tour so after enjoying our time with the dolphins it was time to head back home.

- Cindy Schwenk

Report from Eldey: beautiful day at sea today, with 50% cover of clouds, dry weather, and very flat sea. Perfect conditions to spot some whales! It didn't take us long time before spotting our first minke whale, which was travelling fast and thus we haven't been able to follow it. We took some turns in the bay, checking if there was anything else, and we found more 3 minkes. These were feeding in the same place of several northern gannets, which were taking huge and spectacular plunges in the water. A perfect day to spend at sea!

-Francesco Golin

Report from Eldey: Iceland is famous for its midnight sun and tonight´s bright orange, pink and blue skies perfectly explained why - the landscape around us looked like a painting had come to life. With this sky and the mountains and volcanoes in the backdrop, we sailed into the bay seeking whales, dolphins and porpoises. After an hour we found a minke whale surfacing fast, and in the same area two white-beaked dolphins. Both species disappeared as soon as they appeared so we decided to continue our journey but the sightings stayed rare. We saw some more minkes pop up every once in a while but did not really get a too good look at the animals. Still the scenery and ambience were amazing and complimentary tickets were given out and people were quite happy to listen to some nice music in an amazing Icelandic later summer evening.

- Cindy Schwenk

Manx shearwater, Atlantic puffin, lesser black backed gull, northern fulmer, northern gannet, sooty shearwater, Arctic skua, black legged kittiwake