Sunday, 28 August 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00, 14:00 and 16:00 Premium Whale tour and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00, 10:00, 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
• 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 | 19:00

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.

Report from Eldey: The conditions at sea were better than expected and we had a pretty smooth sail into the bay despite some cold wind. We encountered 4 harbour porpoises, quickly surfacing in the waves and creating small splashes. Our attention was then diverted to a blow from a much larger cetacean: there was a humpback whale in the area! This individual was Mariupol, and he was resting - taking about 3 breaths before going down for a short dive. At the end of the sighting Mariupol showed us his fluke, and this was our queue to move on to the next humpback whale, because we had just seen some splashes in the distance. The splashes were created by Pointy, one of our other regular humpback whales. Pointy peduncle throwed and tail slapped repeatedly, and came up right next to our boat! We were excited to see this spectacle from so close, and the marine biologists on board were extra happy because Pointy's activity meant that we could have a good look underneath him to discover he is a male! Although we wanted to stay forever, we decided to say goodbye and explore some other areas. There we encountered a minke whale and 4 more harbour porpoises. On the way back to Reykjavík we made a quick stop to admire Mariupol one last time, with a fluke dive as a fitting ending to an incredible tour. 

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Hafsula: As is very icelandic the weather changed a lot from yesterday! Today it was much more grey and windy when we set sail into the bay of Faxa. The ocean was still fairly calm though so a good day to find whales. We saw a few gannets on our outward journey and then spotted the blow from a  humpback whale! This was a very calm individual and showed us its fluke three times. We then decided to move on and found another humpback whale very quickly! This one was pec-slapping.This individual was very clam but took its time between dives so after a few encounters we headed on. We saw some white beaked dolphins that surprised us with a quick hello and immediate goodbye! We hovered for a few moments to see if they would reappear and got to see two minke whale instead.They came pretty close and everyone managed to have a good look. We continued with our quest for dolphins as our captain saw some jumping dolphins but they also vanished. We were still quite happy with all the cetaceans we saw today and as time ran out we headed back to harbour. 
- Melanie (there is an accent on the e) Magnan

Report from Eldey: The condition got a bit better this afternoon with a calmer see and it was very pleasant to sail in the bay. We went to a similar area than this morning but the animals seemed to have moved a bit more towards south were we found Pointy, a humpback whale, waving with its pectoral fin. We got a bit closer but the humpback went for a quite long dive. We were surprised to see it reappear right next to our boat giving us a great first sighting. It came up a few times, less than 50 meters away from us and went for another very long dive. We waited but it did not came up in our area anymore. We decided to leave when we saw another humpback further away, that was Mariupol that was showing its pectoral fins and rolling on its back for a few seconds. In the same area we had a glimpse of 2 white beaked dolphins and 3 minke whales that were surfacing, very shy. We went back home crossing 2 more minke whales during the way back with northern gannets following us, gliding in the wind with there wide white wings.

- Miquel Pons

Report from Eldey: We went out in a calm water, under a quite threatening cloudy sky but we could stay dry until the end of the tour. We took the direction of the west hoping to have nice encounters and we needed a while to find a nice area where we started to see small blows coming from minke whales. In total we saw around 10 of those beautiful whales during the tour, surfacing here and there sometimes 20 or 30 meters from the boat. We slowdown and looked all around for a while trying to understand well were the animals were and to feel the vibe. We started to understand that one of the blows was slightly bigger and went there to check. It was a humpback whale! An individual that we are starting to know very well, that we like to call Pointy. A few minutes later we were seeing another humpback whale, that we call Mariupol, 4-5 white-beaked dolphin that seemed to enjoy the whale presence and the minke whales. The humpback whale Pointy surfaced a few times very close of the boat and Mariupol was sometimes waving at us with its huge white pectoral fins. One of the dolphins started jumping further away happy to be part of this cetacean party. We stayed there looking the animals all around us and above our heads with a few northern gannets gliding super close and plunge diving non-far away. A very nice tour to end the day.

- Miquel Pons

common guillemot, northern gannet, herring gull, greater and lesser black backed gull, black legged kittiwake, great cormorant, atlantic puffin, northern fulmar, arctic skua