Friday, 21 July 2023

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

Report from Eldey: We sailed across the bay with a foggy weather but a calm sea and quite warm temperatures. We met many sea birds species on our way and they gave us lots of company during our long journey before spotting the first 3 minke whales of the tour. We saw them in the distance and then, once closer, we found out to be surrounded by 5 active individuals. Probably they were feeding as many other birds were catching schooling fish around. Suddenly we saw 1 pod of white beaked dolphins jumping and feeding as well. We were completely surrounded by lot of action. It was so nice... Then we finally spot few blows of 2 humpback whales, and one of them was David Jones II, one of the individuals of our catalogue. We spent a nice quality time with all these animals in their natural habitat but sadly we ran out the time and we had to go back to the harbor. Such a cool tour though!!!

- Marta Filippini

Report from Hafsúlan: Our day started with a foggy bay, hiding the beautiful Faxaflói landscape. Even though the visibility was not the best, the sea was calm and the wind was very weak, which allowed us to take off some layers! This bit of fog did not stop our sense of adventure though and we sailed for a very long time until our first sighting. That was of a minke whale, but not just one but many! Lots of minke whales started popping up left and right, far and wide. We took good looks at them but we had a different mission, we sailed out further to see two humpback whales traveling and feeding together on a massive amount of fish. These humpback whales were known to us, one was called Davy Jones II and the other one was very likely Happy accompanying Davy. We turned the engines off and just watched them lunge feed, roll and fluke dive for a very long time. At one point lots of minke whales and three different pods of  white-beaked dolphins joined in, interacting with the humpbacks. Just amazing! So in total we saw two humpback whales, more then 10 minkes and about 12-15 dolphins, what a tour!

- Cindy Schwenk

Report from Eldey: Today the sea has been exceptionally good yet the skies over-casted and a bit foggy. We had lovely encounters with cetaceans in earlier tours so we were eager to arrive to the same location. After 1hr 20min we arrived and there we spotted 3 very active humpback whales feeding. Amongst them was one who we identified as David Jones II. He lunge fed two times to the pleasure of our passengers that reacted with wow's and ah's. There was a short period of pectoral slapping and loads of fluke dives. Some whitebeaked dolphins were spotted as well but they held their distance to our boat. An overall wonderful tour.

- Kristin Ros

Report from Hafsúlan: The weather was cloudy but warm and the sea was fairly calm. We sailed out into the bay and it took us some time to spot our first cetacean, a minke whale! This individual popped up a few times and we could even spot a second one. Moving on, we have got to a spot where we could see about 4 more minkes and have a great look of them. But something bigger caught our eyes: 2 humpback whales where on our front, not too far! They were feeding peacefully and performing some interesting behaviours. They rolled on the surface showing the fluke and the long pectoral fins and one of them even blowed bubbles close to us, a behaviour called bubble net feeding! We also identified them as Davy Jones II and Happy, two whale friends that have been eating together on the last few days. After enjoying these whales, we noticed we were running out of time and started slowly heading back to Reykjavik. On the way we still spotted 2 minkes passing by very close to our boat. 

- Milla Brandao

Report from Eldey: After the two previous tours, we decided to head towards the same area full of fish and we sailed far out again, still with a calm ocean and even a glimpse of sun. After a long time we spotted 2 minke whales, quite elusive and a small pod of 4 white beaked dolphins but far distant. We decided to go on a little bit further and we spotted finally the blows of 2 humpback whales, the same we saw in the previous tour: David Johns II and another individual. They were busy feeding around a huge bird flock of kittiwakes and also they showed us few fluke dives, and one was in synchro!! So beautiful!! Of course every time we have fun time flies and we had to start our journey back as the route on the way to the harbor was quite long. But everybody was very happy of the tour and they left the boat with a huge smile on their face. Definitely to do it again! 

- Marta Filippini

Report from Hafsúlan: With a calm sea, foggy landscape and a bit of a chilly wind, we sailed out to the area we had a higher concentration of animals today, hopping they were still there. It took us a while, but the waiting was totally worth it: we had 2 humpback whales swimming together side by side, and one of them even spy-hopped us to check us out. The way they were slowly moving on the surface made us realize they were sleeping, very peacefully, so we turned off the engines and enjoyed them in silence, feeling nature around us. In the meantime, about 8 minke whales popped out around us, and one even came closer to us, showing a lot of curiosity on the boat. Suddenly, a pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins popped out and started swimming very close to the humpbacks, waking them up. It really worked! The humpbacks started rolling on the surface and then lunge fed, pretty much awaken. They came super close to our boat, very curious and showed us the long and white pectoral fins. Then, after spending this quality time with them, we decided to come back to Reykjavik without actually wanting to leave these whales, but very happy and amazed with the sightings from the tour.

- Ludvig 

Northern gannet, Atlantic puffin, black legged kittiwake, herring gull, lesser black backed seagull, manx shearwater, common guillemot, Northern fulmar, Arctic skua, great black backed seagull, Arctic tern.