Thursday, 3 August 2023

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 12:00, 14:00, 16:00 and 20:00 Premium Whale tour and on our lovely vessel Eldey and Hafsúla  for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 14:00 and 19:00 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
• CLASSIC 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 | 19:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 20:00

Report from Eldey: We sailed out in a shy and cloudy day, but the sun came out once we left the harbour and without waves. We were 1 hour into the voyage and we started to see more and more puffins and manx shearwaters and then something else, 3 pods of white-beaked dolphins that were together in the middle of 3 flocks of birds feeding on fish laying on the surface. They jumped in happiness, played with each other and also came to greet us on the boat. Not too far we started to see other type of fins, they were from 10 or more minke whales, some of them did lunge feeding events, splashing the flock of birds everywhere and getting the fish. The dolphins kept on jumping and then they stopped. We headed a bit further south to try to fins something else, but with no success. Anyway, we had an amazing time with these cetaceans, the sun was amazing and no wind also. We headed back to the harbour, warm and happy.

- Pedro Teixeira

Report from Hafsulan: today we started the tour in perfect conditions. Light wind and no swell and no rain despite the cloudy sky. Also some sun just joined few times during the morning. We sailed a bit far out and we saw 4 minke whales. We spent some time with them and we decided to continue and we spotted 1 pod of white beaked dolphins. They were swimming and jumping and we could see them very close from the boat. Everyone had the chance to see this endemic species and we spent nice time with them. As the time ran out we had to start our journey back to the harbor, still looking for other wildlife but we couldn't see any. But we still had a cool tour and everyone was happy. 

- Nico Corral 

Report from Eldey: It was a nice tour today with some sun and good visibility. Just few minutes after leaving the port we spotted 1 pod of white beaked dolphins, around 8 individuals, that just popped out from nowhere with in a chill mode. They looked very relaxed and swam all around us, pretty close and it was very cool! We spent some time with them and then we moved on another zone with lots of bird flocks. Action were on: many seabirds were surely busy fishing and we spotted 4 minke whales, some of them feeding too. Probably we saw like 10 individuals in different places of the same area, and many of them quite elusive. Sailing around was very nice as we could see their dorsal fins everywhere. Once we started heading back we met another pod of 4 white beaked dolphins and just before getting closer to the city we saw another minke whale swimming on our side!!

- Marta Filippini

Report from Hafsulan: Lovely day at sea, though cloudy it was bright, dry and warm. After only 40 min of sailing we came upon pod of 6-8 white beaked dolphins who were very active and showing off their acrobatic skills breaching the water and twisting their body in the air, head slamming and pectoral fin slamming the surface as well! We stayed with them for good 15 minutes and though they were still very active we decided to head further out to the bay hoping to see bigger cetaceans. We noticed other boats gathering in one location so we aimed towards them. Upon arriving we noticed big and many flocks of birds in the area, Einar our captain, known as "The Minke whale whisperer" turned off the engine and we waited patiently for something to surface from the deep, listening to the squawks of the birds. Soon loads of minke whales were seen around us, some close others further away. There must have been at least 15 minkes around. We stayed for the duration of our tour, almost 1,5 hour, in that area, following few individuals around. Some passengers witnessed a lunge feeding quite close to the boat. Excellent tour with excellent passengers and crew.

-Kristín 

Report from Hafsúlan: We started the tour with amazing weather conditions. We sailed out and suddenly we saw some splashes on the port side. There were around 10 white beaked dolphins jumping around!! We got closer and spent some time seeing how close they got to us. After that, we went further and we could find around 5 different minke whales that were resting in the area. It was super exciting and relaxing to see them in their natural habitat. What a beautiful show!

-Nicolas Corral