Saturday, 29 June 2024

Today we will be operating our Classic Whale Watching on our lovely vessel Eldey at 9:00, 13:00, 17:00, 20:30 and our just as lovely catamaran Hafsúlan at 11:00, 15:00. Our Premium Whale Watching tour will operate on Þruma I-V at 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 16:00 and 20:00

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 9:00, 11:00, 13:00, 15:00, 17:00, 20:30
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 16:00, 20:00

Report from Eldey: We set off this morning battling a few of the bigger waves from the last few days. The wind had dropped a lot this morning though meaning we could enjoy the morning sun. After sailing towards one of our usual hotspots for just under an hour we spotted a blow ahead. There was a humpback whale! We saw it blow a few times before we got closer. There may have even been 2 here. Sometimes we got to see fluke dives and other times not. There was also quite a big area the blows were coming from despite short-ish dive times of 6 minutes. So these two factors maybe indicated there were 2 humpbacks. At one stage one of them came really close to our boat and then went for a fluke dive. It was so special to see this moment. We had clearly found the right area to be as also here were 4-5 minke whales and a pod of 3 harbour porpoises. We then headed home enjoying the sun after a lovely tour.

- Rob Hyman

Today we sailed out with clear blue skies and a fresh ocean breeze. We sailed a good distance out into the bay, often accompanied by puffins flying by. Eventually we spotted our first minke whale, which ended up being quite elusive, so we moved onwards. Some time later, we found an area where multiple northern gannets were plunge diving, and around this area we spotted a second minke whale. This one was however pretty shy as well. As we ran out of time for our trip, we headed back home and handed out complementary tickets to the passengers. This way they can come again for free on another trip and enjoy all the beautiful wildlife this bay has to offer.

- Milan Vansteelandt

Report from Eldey: We left into the ocean with an incredible clear and sunny sky, that contrasted with some of the cloudier days we had earlier in the week. It truly seemed like a summer day, except for the waves, which were still a bit "bold", similar to what had been the case on the previous tour. Nevertheless, the waves did not present a challenge to us, as we ventured into Faxaflói bay, searching for wildlife. And by wildlife we were met! First by various species of curious marine birds, who would approach our ship, but then by our first sighting, a minke whale. Unfortunately, this lonely minke whale showed up as fast as it disappeared, and only a small amount of clients and crew manage to see it. This didn´t make us quit, since we patiently continued our search. And our patience paid back, as eventually we came across a group of 2 humpback whales. We first spotted them almost a kilometer away, but as we approached, we got the true perception of their size, and an amazing view of their flukes, since they surfaced and dived multiple times around us. This was truly a tour that taught us the value of patience and not giving up in whale-watching.

-Ricardo Mendes

Report from Hafsulan : This afternoon, Faxafloi bay blessed us again with amazing sightings. For our second tour of the afternoon, after traveling as usual towards the center of the bay, we spotted a powerful blow a few hundred meters from us. We carefully got closer to find not one, but two beautiful humpback whales cruising peacefully in front of us. One seemed much bigger than the other - a mother and their calf ? The larger one quickly went for a dive, followed by the second. They resurfaced just a few meters from our boat, breathing out powerful blows that reflected all the colors of the rainbow, and we watched them in awe. They were constantly diving, resurfacing somewhere close to the the boat, taking several powerful blows, and diving again. After almost half an hour we decided to say goodbye and ventured more to the north. We spotted a minke whale in the distance, but in the time for us to get closer it had disappeared into the blue. We finally headed back to the harbor, still smiling from today´s encounters. 

- Olivia Garcia

Report from Eldey: After a great day so far of whales we headed to the same spot as the previous afternoon tours. It took a while to reach it but it was so worth it by the time we got there. We again saw 2 big blows from humpback whales. These two didn´t leave eachother´s side for the whole sighting. It was almost like they were holding fins, they always surfaced together. There were so many fluke dives from each individual giving us a great opportunity to ID the flukes. One of them did a peduncle throw at one point too! It was a really cool sighting for us all and we never wanted to leave. But unfortunately we had to with a boat full of very very happy people.

- Rob Hyman

This evening we were very lucky with the weather and the sea conditions: The sun was shining and the sea was very calm with low swell and no white caps at all. We enjoyed the smooth ride out already and soon ecountered two elusively travelling harbour porpoises. We decided to continue our search further out and were not disappointed at all. After a while we saw blows and large backs that kept surfacing. When we approached we found out that there were two humpback whales that stayed together throughout our encounter. They kept coming up very close to our boat and showed us their beautiful flukes several times. Really cool encounter. At one point there was also a very spectacular skua-fight more or less on top of our boat that lasted for at least five minutes. On the way back we encountered two more harbour porpoises but they were quite elusive as well. 

-Lasse Roggenkamp

Atlantic puffin, Northern fulmar, Northern gannet, common guillemot, razorbill, black guillemot, Arctic tern, herring gull, black backed gulls