Sunday, 24 March 2024

Today we will be operating on our lovely vessel Eldey for our Classic Whale Watching tour. Make sure to dress according to weather, as it is usually colder at sea than on land.

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 9:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00

Report from Eldey: Our lovely morning started sailing out to Faxaflói bay to search for fun cetacean sightings! Despite the wind and small swell the visibility was very good and we could admire the amazing landscape that surrounds the bay! After an hour of sailing with all hands on deck and all eyes on the sea we managed to find a small pod of white beaked dolphins!! They showed some curiosity towards the boat and approached our bow swimming rapidly! We continued paying attention and sooner than later we were able to find the rest of the pod! About 8-10 dolphins were scattered around the area! Amazing sighting with the dolphins close by and with some small jumps so we could see beautiful pattern in their chunky bodies! As we were quite far after about 20 minutes we happily decided to start our journey back to the Reykjavik harbour!

- Maria Ernesto

Report from Hafsulan: After a fun morning with the dolphins we sailed out again, this time on 2 boats. So firstly we set off on our lovely boat, Hafsulan. Not too long after leaving the harbour a dorsal fin appeared on our left, it was a minke whale. This individual surfaced a few times and was sometimes tricky to follow. But then it came up right in front of us giving everyone a great view of it's slender body. Just after leaving the minke we saw some splashes belonging to 2 harbour porpoises jumping out the water. We then carried on and sailed around for a while without seeing any cetacean life. Then on our right we saw a blow and a body. This belonged to a mystery animal we didn't spot for a bit longer. In the meantime a second minke whale surfaced for us. As we searched for this minke we saw the first Atlantic puffin of the year!! The minke never resurfaced for us but we did spot a pod of 10 white beaked dolphins. They were leaping out the air really high and creating huge splashes. The dolphins then started to slow down and swim very calmly, even coming right up to the boat. Whilst this happened, we saw that big blow again. This time we managed to get bit closer and could see it was a humpback whale! It wasn't just any humpback though, it was Davy Jones II! This individual has now returned to Faxafloi Bay for a 4th year in a row. It was so exciting to see this whale again after their winter migration. They fluked dived lots giving us a great end to the tour. We then sailed back with people very happy (and a few green faces).

- Rob Hyman

Report from Eldey: Today we sailed out in a warmer afternoon. Okay, it was cold. But the wind was weak enough to be warm in an overall! So we went, ready and excited to see our favorite animals. It was a slow start, actually, but so worth the wait. We travelled for about over an hour, and we got to and area full of Northern fulmars, indicating we had high chances of having a lot of food there. And it didn't take long until we spotted a couple of dorsal fins at the surface! We had a pod of about 10 white-beaked dolphins, that right from the start started jumping like crazy! There was a single dolphins that came close to us and continued jumping as high as it could, seeming like it would never get tired of it. We continued to watch them coming closer and coming far, until we also saw a blow in the distance. We decided to check it out, but this one was taking a while under the water. We waited a bit and there it was! a dark back and a big blow! It was a humpback whale, and getting closer to it, we were thrilled to find out that it wasn't just a random individual... it was Davy Jones!! One of our best whales of 2023! Davy was spending a while on its deeper dives, taking its time, but came quite close and we could even hear the blow of it! Amazing afternoon with such amazing animals.

- Milla Brandao

Atlantic puffin (!!!), Northern gannet, Northern fulmar, black guillemot, common guillemot, eider duck, black legged kittiwake, herring gull, glaucous gull, European shag, Great cormorant