Friday, 10 September 2021

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00 and 14:00 Premium Whale Watching tours and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00 and 13:00 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 ON SCHEDULE | 09:00

✔ PREMIUM WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 10:00

✔ CLASSIC WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 13:00

✔ SEA ANGLING TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 13:00

✔ PREMIUM WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 14:00

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: It was the same south-westerly wind that greeted us this morning as had been with us for the past few days. It was still quite light, even though the swell in the ocean was over 1 meter high. It took us some time to see our first cetacean of the day – a humpback whale was spotted a little north of Marfló. It was clearly feeding – we had a lot of fish in the area and its movements were very unpredictable. We left that one to look at a pod of about 10-12 white-beaked dolphins that were nearby, and as we left them they had gone over to the humpback to bother it a little bit as they often do. In our new searching area we found another humpback whale. This one was a bit more of a show than the earlier one, showing its fluke more often and surfacing more frequently.  A single minke whale was also spotted a couple of times close to the humpback. We could however only watch them for about 10 minutes before our time was up and we had to head back to the harbour.

- Fróði Guðmundur Jónsson

Report from RIB : A low and heavy sky was upon Reykjavik this morning, with rain and a bit of wind coming from the west. There was around 1m swell and it was a bit choppy making the way out a bit bumpy. We looked for the whales going in the good areas and we heard on the radio that a boat that was quite close had something interesting. We approached from the other boat and keeping a respectful distance, admire the show. There was a humpback whale on the left of the boat, and quite close on another boat a pod of 6-7 white beaked dolphins. We did not know what to chose and we did not have to. After a short dive, the humpback whale reappeared in the middle of the pod of dolphin. All those animals were apparently in a very playful mood. Dolphins jumping and humpback rolling it was amazing to watch. The humpback finished by a nice fluke dive and the dolphins left. We stayed a bit with the humpback and then decided to let it alone. We patrolled further away and found a second humpback whale that was quietly swimming and doing shy fluke dives. We went back under the rain, very wet but happy.

Report from Eldey: The weather from the morning remained the same with one change: the rain was pouring down. However, it stopped after about a 20 minute ride into the bay and the passengers started appearing from the cafeteria and on to the top deck. We started the trip with a short encounter with around 5 harbour porpoises, but did not stop for them for too long. We then spotted a very friendly juvenile minke whale, which surfaced for a few times very close to the boat. We quickly moved away from the minke as we saw 2 humpback whales close by, and one of them was tail-slapping very hard! However, its energetic behaviour would soon slow down, as when we approached them, they approached us as well. That was the start of an amazing whole hour with this pair, which has been very friendly for the last couple of days, as they rolled around and under the boat, checking the passengers out and being curious about the boat. We could also see the third humpback whale, but it was a little further away than the friendly pair. On our ride back, we saw on two separate instances about 4-5 harbour porpoises, but did not stop for them this time either.

- Fróði Guðmundur Jónsson

Report from RIB : Conditions were a bit better this afternoon. Less wind and almost no more rain so we finished the tour dry this time. Also the swell was longer which made the riding very pleasant on the icelandic sea rollercoster. We went quite far away right in the beginning because we saw twice a big splash that was very likely made by a breaching humpback whale. But we could not find it once in the area. We came back and found first a minke whale that disappeared right away, and 2 humpback whales that were absolutely amazing. They were just coming to every boat, curious and friendly, turning around, spy-hoping, rolling sometimes. You feel very lucky when such an incredible animal choses to interact with you and when you have the chance to look at a humpback whale in the eye. We stayed there for a while until the whales took a bit of distance and we came back to Reykjavik still amazed and thinking about what just happened.

- Miquel Pons