Saturday, 22 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
• 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: Another day of exceptionally good sea conditions and this time around we did not need to sail far before we saw our first cetaceans. 30 minutes in we came upon a pod of white beaked dolphins, around 6 of them and close by 2-3 harbour porpoises, it was clear these animals were feeding cause there were flocks of birds hanging just above them. We stayed for a bit then headed into direction of where minke whale had been spotted. This was infact a minke hot spot. There were around 6 minke whale seen in that area with flocks of birds, all feeding. After spending sometime with the whales we headed back to Reykjavik but on the way we saw at least 3 other pods of white beaked dolpins, 6-8 individuals in pod. Some of them even showed us their acrobatic skills and bow rode with us for short amount of time.

- Kristin

Report from Hafsúlan: The sea was incredibly calm as was the wind but the air was a tiny bit chilly from the misty fog hanging in the air. We sailed out towards the west awaiting an adventure. Not far out our first cetacean sighting occurred, it was a small pod  of harbour porpoises. We got a few glimpses of their dorsal fins before they disappeared into the depths of the ocean again. Next up was the white-beaked dolphins! We had just left the porpoises and sailing further out into the bay as a pod of these cute dolphins appeared. They first swam towards us and passed us by on one side only to head further on, unbothered by our presence. We decided after a while that it was time to move on and crash a minke party! We saw lots and lots of black backs pop up everywhere in front of us. Those were the backs of lots and lots of minke whales. We even saw one minke known to us, its name was Humpie because of the resemblance of its dorsal fin to a humpback whale. We admired these minkes for a long time, even turning the engines off and listened to the cries of the birds and whale blows. Then it was time to head home but even on the way home the minkes and dolphins would not leave us alone. We saw multiple more minkes pop up and even  three more pods of dolphins. So in total we probably was 15-20 minke whales, 10 porpoises and more than 20 dolphins.

-Cindy Schwenk

Report from Eldey: We sailed out in this very calm sea and cloud-cushioned sky, with the hope of repeating our morning experience. Much so, we very quickly came upon 2 pods of white-beaked dolphins: the 9 individuals showed all their talent, engaging shortly with the boat before jumping simultaneously a large number of times. These behaviours got us on the right track, as we would follow our trip out to see more and more avian activity, which lead us to encounter 3 more pods of white beaked dolphins during the tour. Around the middle of our trip, we finally saw our first minke whale. This individual was the first of 10 other minke whales, which joyfuly fed all around us, appearing and disappearing, with some other 2 pods of dolphins passing in the distances. We finally decided to leave our minke and dolphin filled afternoon, with great content of having seen so many individuals on such a calm day. 

- Alexandre Paumier

Report from Hafsúlan: We started the tour under pretty good conditions. There was no wind and the temperature was excellent. As soon as we departed we were able to see around 8 harbor porpoises and 4 white beaked dolphins next to them! We continued our way and some time later we found 2 humpback whales doing lunge feeding amazingly close to the boat. We could also see around 6 different minke whales feeding around too!! What a beautiful tour!

-Nicolás Corral

Report from Eldey: We sailed out this late afternoon hoping to reiterate our sightings of this morning, in a still sea with very little wind and a lively group. Off the bat, we passed by some 3 harbour porpoises, that could easily be seen in these conditions. As we sailed further into the bay, we came upon a pod of 6 white-beaked dolphins, that gracefully delivered a couple of lovely breaches before getting up curiously close to our boat. Later on, as we left this group to look for some other cetaceans, our search got delivered with many minke whales: over the spam of an hour, various individuals appeared and dissapeared around us, making us go in circles after them. Of these 12 minkes, 4 of them gave us the chance of appearing very close to our bow, making our merry-go-round fruitful. As we slowly left this minke-riddled sea, some more 5 dolphins gave us a little goodbye for our way back home.

- Alexandre Paumier

Report from Elding: We sailed out tonight on lovely, calm seas. After about an hour of sailing we started to find our desired cetaceans. First we encountered 2 white beaked dolphins. We carried on past them and ended up finding more dolphins. This was a more interactive pod of 5-6 individuals. They came up on both sides of the boat and were very close. Then further out we spotted a blow. This came from a humpback whale. After this one went for a fluke dive we spotted another so we traveled the very short distance to that and this second humpback was the one we spent our time with. It was Davy Jones II again! This was a fantastic sighting. They came sooo close to the boat for so long, they were centimeters away from us. They logged there for us to see the whole body, all the way from the rostrum to the fluke. It was sensational! The breath of this whale even covered some of our passengers. After leaving Davy we then encountered another pod of dolphins that were very active, jumping out the water. There was around 8 individuals including a calf. After this we saw 5 minke whales. They regularly surfaced for us all to see. What a great tour.

- Rob Hyman

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