Wednesday, 21 June 2023

Today we will be operating on our lovely vessel Eldey and Hafsúla for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 17:00 and 20:30 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
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 12:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 16:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 17:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 20:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 20:30

Report from Eldey: We started the tour with very good conditions. We thought the sea was pretty rough but it was not so bad. Despite the northern wind we had a beautiful sunny sky during all the tour. Just outside the harbor we spotted 2 weak and blushy blows in the distance quite far from each other. We decided to go closer and we reached one of them and we saw 1 minke whale, super fast busy traveling. We waited a bit to see it again but it was quite difficult even if many passengers managed to see it. Then we decided to move into another area to check for something else and we saw another blow of a minke again. So we spotted 3 individuals in total. Then we saw other 2 blows, this time quite bigger. We reached them and we saw 2 humpback whales, both elusive. We just focused on one in particular and it came also closer to the boat during its breathing sequence and we managed to see its body, the dorsal fin and even the rostrum!! After spending some time with this animal we reached a third humpback whale and we ended the tour with a nice fluke dive in front of the bow so that everyone could see the elegant tail. Also, on the way back 2 tiny harbour porpoises just crossed our way. We definitely enjoyed this first day of summer!

- Marta

Report from Elding:  This morning looked a bit gloomy but as we were getting closer to set sail the clouds parted and we had bright blue skies and warm sunshine all through our tour. Less than an hour into the tour a humpback whale surfaced quite close to the boat. We noticed some unusual characteristics about it: it had bright white dorsal fin! It swam slowly, surfacing for breath couple of times but never seemed to really arch and take deeper dives. Our conclusion was that it might have been slow feeding. Since we had stayed with the animal for a while and other boats were approaching to get a view, we decided to head further into the bay and try our luck for another sightseeing. Big flocks of birds were seen feeding but no other cetaceans except for an elusive minke whale that surfaced once and then disappeared from view and not seen again. We headed back to Reykjavík harbour, happy with our close encounter with the white dorsal fin humpback. 

-Kristín Rós

Report from Eldey: We started the tour with an uncomfortable northern wind that was creating some waves so it was a bit hard to spot anything on the surface. We were sailing for an hour until we got to see a blow. It was a humpback whale! We tried to get close to it and when we reached it, it disappeared for some minutes before coming up again with an amazing breach 5 meters away from us!!! What an amazing show! After that 2 more humpback whales came next to the boat and the 3 of them kept swimming around us for at least 30 min. Right before going back to the harbour we saw one of them tail slapping and also doing some peduncle throw as well! What a beautiful tour with these 3 humpback whales!

-Nicolás Corral

Report from Eldey: We sailed out the bay in time with less wind and still a lovely sunny sky this time. We all enjoyed the lovely ride under the sun and then I just spotted 1 pod of white beaked dolphins in the distance jumping all out of the water like crazy. Of course we decided to get closer when 1 humpback whale popped out very close to our port side and we suddenly slowed down. Then we just found out to be surrounded by 2 humpbacks, very relaxed but also quite friendly as they didn't seem scared by the boat. Suddenly the pod of dolphins reached us and we could admire these 2 species all together under the sun glare. Everything was so magical. We saw another pod of white beaked dolphins again, about 15 individuals. We were completely surrounded by active animals in their natural habitat and close to the end we had 4 humpbacks swimming in front of us, very very close to the bow with few dolphins together. This has been the best combo of the day added with the sunny and lovely weather. Sadly we ran out the time but we spotted one of the humpback jumping out with 1 third of the body, giving us a quick show a bit far in the distance. What a cool tour!!

- Marta 

Report from Eldey: There was less wind on this midnight tour as we headed out into the bay, thankfully. This meant almost nobody felt seasick too. We didn't even have to sail for very long before we started to see blows and splahes in the distance. These blows belonged to our humpback whales and the splashes to white beaked dolphins. They were all feeding together. In total we saw 5 humpbacks and at least 40 dolphins. We even got to see some of these humpbacks breaching which included one doing it 6 times in a row! The dolphins were also jumping out the water, potentially to stunt the fish to help their feeding. Toward the end of the tour we even got lucky enough to see awesome lunge feeding behavior a few meters away from the boat. It was such a special tour. 

- Mel, the girl who is the same size as a harbour porpoise

Oyster catcher, Northern fulmar, Atlantic puffin, Common eider, Herring gull, Arctic skua, Great cormorant, Black guillemot, Pomarine skua, Common gull, Black-legged kittiwake, Lesser Black-backed gull, Glaucous gull.