Sunday, 13 July 2025

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00, 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: This morning we went out with very weak Southern winds, giving us a flat sea with a bit of swell. We also got a drizzle in the middle of the tour, that stick around until the end with us. But all good: we got our overalls and hot drinks and we were ready to go. We first spotted 3 white-beaked dolphins, that started bow riding and took us to an amazing spot: other 50+ dolphins were feeding, jumping, having fun and even swimming side by side to... 3 humpback whales together! WOW! Also, there were a few minke whales here and there popping up at different distances, but we will get to them later on. We stayed with the humpbacks while the dolphins went another way, and the humpies started to circle us, coming very close to the boat. We could follow them on the front and slowly coming to the back, tracking them through the surface with the long and white pectoral fins. We then decided to check other areas, spotting about 5-8 harbour porpoises passing by, and also more minke whales. Every spot that we would look at for a few seconds, a minke would be coming up for a breath. Then, we got to their spot: we could count about 40+ minkes during the tour, and got very close to 3 that were swimming almost side by side. Wow! Then we came back to the trio of humpbacks, and they circled us again! One of them even spy-hopped, a bit curious. With that, and the drizzle on our smiley faces, we came back to the harbour excited for the pictures!

- Milla Brandao

Report from Hafsulan: We started our adventure with a cloudy and slightly rainy day, but with great sea conditions for finding whales, as the sea was mostly flat and visibility was great. It didn´t take us long until we spotted our first whale, a humpback whale, slowly travelling through the ocean. We spent some time observing this individual and listening to its loud blows, every time it came up for air. During this period, we also had three solitary minke whales surfacing over the horizon. With some fabulous fluke dives we waved our humpback goodbye to see who else was out in the bay buffet today. We then stumbled upon three minke whales! One was solitary feeding and the other two were feeding together. This normally elusive species gave us multiple really close surface sequences which was wonderful. It was minke madness today as when we said goodbye to our three minkes, we came across another two minke whales! These two were solitary and gave us multiple surfaces on either side of the boat. That is when we spotted some bigger blows in the distance and came upon two more humpback whales together! We got a bit of a boat inspection which was wonderful! With both humpbacks so close we were able to track their movements from their white pectoral fins through the water. With eight minke whales and three humpback whales, we counted ourselves lucky and headed back to port. 

-Samantha Smith

Report from Eldey: The afternoon started off with a light drizzle, as we set sail under a grey sky. As we made our way out in the calm sea, it wasn’t long before something in the distance caught our eyes. Two humpback whales breaching simultaneously! over and over again as we made our way to their loction. After watching these two beauties for some time, we continued on our journey. Not long after, we encountered a mother humpback and her baby! The baby was full of energy, pec-slapping and tail-throwing! It would even try to mimic its mother, who was calmly feeding. At one point, the baby even tried to mirror its mother’s technique of gently slapping the surface with its fluke! After spending some time with the pair, we decided to continue our search for more whales before heading back to land. On our way back, we encountered a shy minke whale gliding gracefully through the water, and one final humpback, though this one was much more elusive and reserved. We returned to shore feeling grateful for the encounters we’d had with such majestic creatures!

-Sigrún Helgu

Report from Hafsulan: With the fog lifted and drier skies we headed out into the bay to see who was out to say hello. As we were heading out we saw two harbor porpoises. While they were lovely to see their elusive nature lead to a couple of surfaces before they went off and so we viewed them on the go. We then spotted up to three of our other more elusive species, the  minke whale. We saw these minke whales for one surface sequence before we waved goodbye because we saw the blows of two humpback whales! We were in for a very nice treat as we had found our mother and calf pair! This rather rare pair has been around for a little while now which has been spectacular, as usually mother and calf pairs separate by the time they reach our feeding ground. They were resting at the surface which allowed us to admire their white pectoral fins through the water, as well as their massive size difference! After multiple surface sequences and a fluke from our mother humpback, we waved these two goodbye and moved onward. We then came across two more minke whales, before spotting a pod around 20 white beaked dolphins. We had now found all four of our common species found in our bay- BINGO! They were very curious and actually swam under our boat! Two dolphins them started to show off their jumping skills giving us a full body view out of the water. Really incredible viewing as they kept breaching for us. After being surrounded by dolphins with an excellent viewing we started our journey back to port. With all four common species sighted, we could not ask for more from this fabulous tour.

-Ricardo

Report from Eldey: On out afternoon tour, the weather changed a bit. Off we went with the sun shining on our faces. Also, the sea was very calm, but fortunately the cetaceans weren't! We first spotted 2 harbour porpoises and then a group of white-beaked dolphins, and there were so many of them that I believe we counted about 60 in that spot. They were all feeding, together with countless seabirds and a humpback whale! A common and always welcome interaction that we love to see. The dolphins were so active that they were creating little waves and currents, while the rest of the sea around us was calm. Then, we went South and spotted an gigantic amount of birds together and a big blow, to find out another humpback, this time our beloved mom and calf that we've been seeing on the last tours. They were going for deep dives together, and started to lunge feed together as well! What an amazing sighting!! Also, there were many minke whales around in different distances, about 40 of them! Some of them were lunge feeding and we even spotted a breach of one of them. We then returned home, and closer to Reykjavik we were even followed by about 6-10 dolphins, jumping and showing off in the beautiful beginning of sunset.

- Milla Brandao

Report from Elding: Our midnight tour started with perfect sea conditions and clear sunset skies. We sailed out to Faxafloi bay searching for some wildlife, and after about half an hour we started seeing some blows in the distance! As we got closer we spotted two humpback whales! It was the mother and calf we have been seeing! As soon as we got close the baby greeted us with a beautiful breach! Absolutely fantastic! We stayed with them for a bit as they swam around our boat! We could see some more blows around and some minke whales also showing up in what seemed to be a big feeding area! Eventually it was time to leave them but just some minutes after we spotted some splashes! White beaked dolphins! a pod of about 25/30 dolphins jumping around! And another humpback whale! Raising out count to about 7/8 humpbacks in the area! A fantastic evening tour!

• Maria Ernesto

Atlantic puffin, Northern gannet, Northern fulmar, Arctic skua, black-legged kittiwake, black-backed gull, common eider, herring gull, common gull