Thursday, 24 August 2023

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00, 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00 Premium Whale tour and on our lovely vessel Eldey and Hafsúla  for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 14:00, 17:00 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.   

• ALL TOURS ON SCHEDULE
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 9:00, 10:00, 13:00, 14:00, 17:00, 19:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 16:00

Report from Eldey: with the clearest skies and beautiful sunshine we sailed out to spot our favorite animals in Faxaflói bay. Our first encounter was with a pod of 3 harbour porpoises that were passing by, and we got to see them continuing their way while we continued ours. Sailing a bit far out, we spotted a minke whale, with its silver body shining with the sun. This individual was spending a little more time underwater, so we decided to leave it alone and explore more areas. Not even 5 min after that, we saw some splashes in the distance and we realized we had over 20 white-beaked dolphins jumping and coming closer! This was an amazing sighting, as they bowrided with us, back breached, tail slapped... We could even see juveniles amongst the pod! They were everywhere we looked, and then they started jumping all together, extremely playful, every single one doing a different jump. After spending the best time with these dolphins, we returned to Reykjavik feeling the weak wind and the sun on our faces.

- Alex "the French touch" Paumier

Report from Hafsulan : We started our tour in a beautiful sun with barely any wind which gave for perfect spotting conditions. Luckily enough after not much time in the tour we spotted our first species of cetaceans : harbour porpoises ! It was a pod of about 5 porpoises going around very fast but that we could see very nicely on the left side of the boat. We then continued our way on the look for something else and we spotted not long after some white beaked dolphins. The pod was of about 10 to 15 animals, very playful and also feeding. We spent quite some time with these dolphins and could observe a range of behaviour which was very fun. Afterwards we moved toward another area where we observed some minke whales. We observed about 4 coming up to the surface in different areas and quite elusively, but i am pretty sure everyone managed to get one look at least on the surface of a minke. We then continued our way and could observe some more harbour porpoises, 2 other pod of white beaked dolphins passing us  by very fast and another minke whale ! A great trip, very sunny and full of wildlife.

- Mélanie "the other French touch" Magnan

Report from Eldey: we sailed out in this sunny afternoon, hoping to repeat the sightings of this morning and more. Everyone on the boat was ready to spot anything and so went out on our adventure! Soon enough, as we went further out on the bay, we spotted some dorsal fins in the distance. We decided to check it out and they belonged to a pod of about 8 white-beaked dolphins, that appeared out of the perfect flat sea. Their presence was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone, as they roamed around the boat. They were super close, bowriding with us and going to different directions. As we left these animals be, we quickly encountered a minke whale in the area, and we could easily feel the stinky breath of this individual, indicating that it has just fed! We waited to see it one more time, but this one was a bit tricky, so we continued our way and then we spotted a pod of 5 harbour porpoises that were travelling around. Before starting our way back to Reykjavik, we even saw more 2 white-beaked dolphins, and then we returned home enjoying the sunny afternoon and weak wind.

- Milla "the Brazilian touch" Brandao

Report from Hafsulan: It was beautiful, sunny and a bit windy for our afternoon tour. We directly started to head out toward an area where we had previously seen some cetaceans. At first a pod of about 5 harbour porpoises came to great us for a short time. Then we proceeded in the bay and noticed some minke whales, we saw about 3 to 4 surfacing around the boat, at times quite close even. We then noticed a different splash as we were observing the minke whales, and we noticed it was a different species - 8 white beaked dolphins feeding! We observed these dolphins for a while, they even came close to our ship at times passing underneath it. It was a very nice encounter but after some time our time started to run out so we had to start our way back to the harbour. On the way back we saw 2 more small pods of harbour porpoises. They were busy feeding but it was nice to see the splashes regardless. 

- Anna " The german touch" Richter

Report from Elding: The sun was still very strong and the skies were super clear when we went out for our tour. We started seeing some small splashes close to the boat, that belonged to a pod of 7 harbour porpoises travelling together. Continuing, we spotted more and more porpoises on the way, scattered and in groups, and in total we ended up seeing about 12 of them in the tour. We then spotted continuous and big splashes very far out, and we decided to take a risk! We took a while to get there, but boy it was worth it. We had a pod of 10 white-beaked dolphins jumping like crazy and super high! They came quite close to us, and bowrided us for a while. Then, they started beautifully swimming as a group, very coordinated, when coming to the surface all at the same time, all lined up! We spent more time with them before heading back to Reykjavik, while enjoying the beginning of a beautiful sunset to come.

- Alex " the French and Portuguese touch" Paumier

Report from Eldey: It was by a beautiful sun that we started our sail, we knew we would have a great sunset at the end of the tour. As we moved around the bay we first noticed some harbour porpoises, a pod of about 3 to 4 were jumping around quite close to us. Seeing harbour porpoises that close and that well is actually quite rare, so we enjoyed the sight while it lasted. While watching these ones we noticed some splashes : it was some white beaked dolphins ! A pod of about 10 of them were first quite far away from us and then gave us the greatest spectacle : they came bow riding and also  jumping around our  boat ! Seeing that in the midnight sun was fantastic, we observed them for a while before we had to start to head back to the harbour. We then made our way back observing the really nice sunset in the clear skies.

- Rodrigo "the portuguese touch" Silva

Northern fulmar, Northern gannet, herring gull, manx shearwater, sooty shearwater