Wednesday, 7 September 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00 and 14:00 Premium Whale tour and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00 and 13:00 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
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00

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: it started by a very nice sunny time with perfect sea conditions so quite easy to spot some animals today. As soon as we left the harbour, we encountered our first whale, 1 minke whale. We did not see the animal coming up and that quite very quick for all the passengers to see it. While we travelling into the bay, we were close to get into the hotspot area, however we started to enter in a big fog which was very complicated to spot anything from far away. In these conditions, it can be very rare to spot something, but only if the animals are coming close to us. And that was our lucky day but this is actually what happened ! Suddenly close to our boat, 2 meters away, 1 humpback whale surfaced ! We firstly spotted it by the huge noise coming from the breath which made some of passenger screaming of fear and surprise ! The animal surfaced 3 times and then went for a deep dive. We decided to try to stay with the animal, hoping that it will surfaced again close to us. There was mostly our ears that we needed to us, more than our eyes. Few minutes later, we saw the individual close to us again so easy for the people to see it for a moment before taking another deep dive. After waiting few minutes again, the humpback came up 2 times but both in the fog and was taking some deep dives quite regularly so it was more complicated to see it again. Considering that we have been very lucky that this humpback surfaced very close to us, we decided to go and try to spot more animals and hoping that this fog will go away. We heard another breath from a whale but unfortunately we could not see it. After sailing in the area, we decided to go back to Reykjavik, the fog was very close to the harbour when we came back so we did not see more animals.

- Enorha Guimard

Report from Eldey: The fog of the morning cleared and revealed absolutely amazing bloody weather only for the sun to light up a couple dead birds floating by, reminding us of the true wildness of these animals. Very soon however we found some life beyond the sea of jellyfish, about 8 harbour porpoises travelling by the boat and glinting in the sun. Speeding right by we continued on looking for a grander prize that we discovered that morning, but before we found it we discovered our first whale of the trip, a minke whale, in the distance. Suddenly we got a call from a nearby boat, the animal we were looking for was found - a humpback whale! This animal was such a lazy whale, having a right proper nap. After a couple of relaxed dives the animal livened up a little and showed us its tail fluke for a deeper dive, before returning to its original sleepy behaviour. After some time more boats showed up and we left this beauty alone to see if we could find something else, quickly finding 3 more minke whales feeding underneath a scattered group of birds along with 2 more pods of porpoises (10 and 6 individuals each). Then suddenly, I see a couple of pointy fins that can´t be porpoises and are too close together to be minkes, they were white beaked dolphins! About 8 individuals with 2 juveniles travelled alongside us before a few split off and travelled underwater right next to our boat. We then decided to leave these animals alone and start returning to port, however glinting under the sun we managed to find another minke whale, a lone harbour porpoise and a final group of dolphins on the way back of 6 adults and 2 calves. Probably one of the busiest days I´ve seen all summer!

- Liam van Walsum