Monday, 3 October 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
• CLASSIC 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: The sea had some swell in it today, but we were happy to get out after a stormy weekend to see who was in the bay. If we had any birdlovers onboard, this was the perfect tour: a diversity of species were present abundantly, with big flocks scattered across the bay. For the cetacean enthusiasts among us, this is also good news because we often find whales or dolphins in the same areas as the birds and today was no exception. A pod of 6 or 7 white-beaked dolphins surfed straight toward our boat, and they started jumping around and coming quite close to us. We then moved on to follow the blows of two or three minke whales, and in the same area another pod of 4-5 dolphins appeared. The minkes popped up all around the boat, and one of them even turned onto his belly and showed us part of the fluke - something that does not happen very often. With these sightings in mind, we sailed back in a calmer sea towards sunny Reykjavík, on the way catching a quick glimpse of 3 harbour porpoises. 

- Anna Richter

Report from Eldey: We sailed out into Faxa floi with a little less swell but still enough to make our boat rock and give a few green faces. We sailed for about an hour and then found two humpback whales resting. It was our beloved Neila and Mariupol. They usually stay solitary but pair up from time to time so its always nice to see. We stayed with them and enjoyed each others company before heading further to see who else was about. We saw one minke whale that was being a bit shy. Then as we started turning back to harbour we saw a lunge feeding minke whale in the distance and another one swimming by closely to the boat. We tried to see the lunge-feed again but this individual dissappeared so we headed back to harbour. On the way back we saw a few more minke whales, at the end probably around 8!

- Eline van Aalderink

Northern gannet, northern fulmar, black-legged kittiwake, herring gull, Arctic skua, sooty shearwater, common guillemot, glaucous gull, eider duck, razorbill, oystercatcher

Report from Elding: There was still a little bit of swell but our sailing was no unpleasant and the visibility was good. We went out trying to spot some whale and we were lucky enough that other boats recently spotted a pair of humpback whales in an area not very far from us. We went there as the other boats were leaving and waited a few minutes. The two humpback surfaced from under our boat, like greeting us! They moved slowly away and went for a deep dive, both showing us the tail. Wonderful. Those two humpbacks, Neila and Mariupol are well known of our tours and have been seen together on multiple occasions. It is interesting and sweet to see that humpback whale forge long term relationships. They were in a good mood and surfaced close to our boat at several times, giving us great sightings. We stayed a while and when the humpbacks surfaced a bit further away we decided it was the right time to go back home. 

- Miquel Pons