Thursday, 31 August 2023

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

Report from Eldey: This gloomy Thursday we sailed out with the wind in our backs onto grey but calm sea. We sailed out for a while and then found a pod of 7 white beaked dolphins! This pods behaviour was quite tricky to interpret but it seemed they were both feeling social and feeding. They changed direction a fair bit, keeping us on our toes and swimming around the whole boat. They jumped completely out the water a few times. After we stayed with them a bit, we headed on to see if we could find another species or pod. As luck would have it we found one minke whale. We stayed a little bit but as we came so far out, had to start our return journey back to the harbour. 

- Anna Richter

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out in a very calm sea. We checked out an area in which we had sightings on previous tours. We sailed around for some time and finally found our first cetacean. It was a minke whale that came up right next to our ship all of a sudden. We encountered a total of 3 different individuals within that area.

-Lasse Roggenkamp

Report from Eldey: We sailed out once again into Faxafloi. After a short sail we found ourselves in harbour porpoise waters! There were a few that popped up on occasion, but it was difficult to keep track of how many surfaced. In total we must have seen between 5-7. These are very small cetaceans and often look like small splashes with a triangle popping out! As we ventured further we left the porpoises behind and found the minke territory! There were roughly 6 minke whales swimming around us, some further and 2-3 that came very close to our boat! When they're this close you can even hear the blow and smell their stinky breath! We stayed in this hotspot for a bit enjoying the whales pop up around us, but eventually ran out of time and headed home!

- Alex Paumier

Report from Hafsúlan: we were expecting to set sail on choppier seas this afternoon. However, we got good sea conditions that were more than enough to spot any sign of life in the bay! Our first encounter was with a pod of 6-7 harbour porpoises, that scattered out, but didn't go far: instead, they surrounded us and we could see them popping out in different spots. We were going to continue our way, but these ones were so predictable that we decided to stay a bit and enjoy them. In the same area, we spotted a bigger cetacean, a dorsal fin coming very smoothly on the surface: a minke whale swimming calmly. As we waited for it to come up again, the porpoises were still around. Then, we saw the porpoises and the minke very close to each other, an uncommon behaviour for these two species. In fact, they were all very predictable, as other more 2 minkes joined the area and we could see them multiple times around us. There was one that spent a few moments closer to us, and we could even hear its loud blow. On the way home, we could spot another pod of 3 harbour porpoises, and they even appeared less than 10m in front of us. A lovely afternoon with these surprisingly predictable species!

- Milla Brandão

Report from Eldey: This evening we had our last tour and once again set sail. We had high hopes and went out on our adventure. Not long after leaving we saw 2 harbour porpoises, but like the ninjas they are they disappeared. We sailed about 40min and then saw jumping white beaked dolphins ahead of us! We made our way over and they were jumping and doing full flips. It was a pod of 5 individuals and they then calmed down a little and went back to feeding. They were quite unpredictable so after a while we decided to head further out and find something else. We sailed 10 more minutes and then came across another pod of dolphins! This one was roughly 7 individuals and a very friendly calm pod coming very close to us and investigating our boat. After a little while they clearly had gotten all the information that they needed and vanished. We sailed on and then found another(!) pod of dolphins! These were probably the most inquisitive and active pod, they would often swim from one side underneath us and pop up in unison. Very magical!

- Anna "The Fibre" Richter