Friday, 1 July 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00, 14:00 and 15:00 Premium Whale tours and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 14:00 and 20:30 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
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 15:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 20:30

COVID-19: Keep in mind that passengers and crew are asked to ensure their own hygiene and safety at all times. Washing hands thoroughly with soap and using a hand sanitiser is advised. Masks are not mandatory but are recommended in areas where keeping distance from others is not possible.

Report from Eldey: Today the sea was like a mirror, we barely had any wind and swell as we went around the bay. It did not take long for our captain to spot a pod of white beaked dolphins. It was a pod of about 5 individuals that we had a nice sighting of for a good 5 to 10 minutes. They were  really calm but started to go away from the boat so we decided to leave to respect our code of conduct and the animals. After some minutes we spotted a minke whale elusively appearing by the water surface. After 5 minutes without seeing the whale surfacing again we spotted 3 minkes swimming together. We had then a nice sighting of those tiny whales for a while. After some time we left to venture out and hopefully see some more cetaceans. It did not disappoint, as we spotted about 8 other minke whales on our way. The bay was absolutely full of that species. It took us until the last hour of the trip though to spot a humpback whale. We then got to see that humpback whale for about 10 minutes before we had to make our way back to the harbour. It was a beautiful day out at sea. 

- Melanie Magnan

Report from Elding: The sun was shining and the sea seemed very calm, this is how our awesome tour started. After about half an hour we spotted our first animals: 2 white-beaked dolphins. A mother and her juvenile were having a fishing lesson around the boat, showing us some nice acrobatics. Then after again some time, we spotted our first humpback whale. It was just milling around, most likely travelling slowly so we were able to stay a while with it. Additionally, we also saw 3 minke whales in the same area all around our boat and got some good glimpses of these fascinating animals. On our way back we encountered another humpback whale that was actually asleep and so we got a very good chance to see the animal from very close while it was just logging and frequently coming up to breathe. Such amazing wildlife encounters!

- Cindy Schwenk

Report from Eldey: What a wonderful weather we had this afternoon. A nice warming sun, very little wind and a very calm sea o everyone could be out and comfortable during the tour. We started going to the south this time and quickly spotted a blow in the distance. We got closer and found a very calm humpback whale that was staying close to the surface, moving slowly. It was probably resting and we could see it on our side at a very respectful distance for a while. Then we went further out trying to see if other animals would be there. We found many 5-6 minke whales spread over the bay, probably feeding because in the came areas there was many flocks of active birds fighting to get the fish. Many Atlantic puffin were also at the surface, quickly diving when our boat was getting to close. We stayed a bit with one of the minke but as often it was not easy to anticipate were it would go. We decided to try to find something else and continued further south. It was a good idea to do so because we found another humpback whale that we saw lob tailing 3 times from a few hundred meters! We got closer and the animal was much more calm but also curious, coming very close of the boat. We could have a great look at the animal smoothly swimming in the water, first on our leftside and a bit later on our right. We stayed until we had to go back to Reykjavik, crossing a few more minke whales and watching the nice birds flying around in the sunlight.

- Miquel Pons

Report from Elding: Leaving the harbour, we went to the same area we saw a whale in the morning. Fortunately, it didn't take long to find this humpback whale, but on our way to this one, we saw the glimpse of a minke whale, about 300 m of the humpback! We decided to focus on the humpback and we saw that it was still doing the same thing that it was doing in the morning: we had there an asleep humpback whale! It was amazing to see it spending so much time at the surface, resting and coming closer to the boat in very slow movements. This whale was taking her time, breathing once in a while and we also took the time to enjoy the moment in silence, even though we were really excited. We decided to leave this sleepyhead and decided to check for more species. About 10 minutes later, we saw a blow in the distance of another humpback whale! This one was way more active than the first one: it was feeding, with very unpredictable surfacings and quite fast. We spent a while trying to track it and seeing the diference of a sleepy whale and a feeding one. When going further to see what we could find more, we saw another minke whale, surfacing a few times before disappearing again. What an amazing day in our ocean safari!

- Milla Brandão

Report from Elding: The wind had picked up a bit and turned out to be more refreshing than the summer heat of the day. We set out into the bay to find some whales and sure enough about half an hour in we found our first minke whales. There must have been at least 3 in the vicinity of the boat but these fellas are quite hard to track so we continued further out the bay in the direction of a humpback whales blow. When we came closer we saw this majestic creature take a deeper dive and we had to wait a while to see it again. While waiting a pod of 5-10 white-beaked dolphins started to jump around the boat which made our passengers very happy. After the dolphins, we decided to follow another humpback whale that showed us its fluke in the very end. On the way back we saw some more minkes and a humpback jump out of the water at a distance. What a day!

- Cindy Schwenk

Common guillemot, black guillemot, Atlantic puffin, Arctic tern, herring gull, lesser black-backed gull, greater black-backed gull, northern fulmar, northern gannet, black-legged kittiwake, Icelandic gull, glaucous gull and Arctic skua.