Friday, 20 May 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00, 12:00 and 14:00 Premium Whale tour 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 | 09:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 12:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 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.

Report from Hafsúlan: What an amazing day for a whale watching adventure! We encountered one of our regular humpback whales, Stu, after only a short while of sailing and were able to enjoy the relaxed individual as it was surfacing calmly and closely to our boat. In pursuit of another blow we had seen in the distance we set sail towards another humpback whale, on the way encountering 2 or 3 harbour porpoises. This other individual was spending more time underwater, clearly feeding on the fish that had also attracted many different seabird species to the area. Although we had to be a bit more patient between the surfaces, this humpback made it worth the wait as it lunged the upper part of its body high out of the water's surface in an impressive feeding maneuver. After some time we said goodbye to this individual, grateful for the unique sighting we had had. We then saw the large back of Stu again, and this time he came even closer to our boat! When we were headed back to Reykjavík we encountered yet another humpback whale, but we didn't have much time to stop and admire this one as we had already had such great moments with all the other animals we had seen today.

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Þrauma II: Today could not be more perfect, everything about it was just amazing, the calm sea, great visibility and wildlife too. We started our amazing tour with a quick stop at Akurey, an island close to Reykjavik where thousands of Atlantic puffins call their home. Then within 10 mins we encountered our first humpback whale, yes this was the first of 3 humpback whales we had the pleasure to see this morning. They were all very relaxed, surfacing many times and moving along slowly, no deep dives or high flukes. One individual however didn’t want to be like the rest and actually started breaching and pectoral fin slapping, AMAZING!! We were also lucky to find a minke whale too, topping off what was already an incredible start to the day.

- Megan Whittaker

Report from Þrauma II: The weather had changed a little for this tour, darker clouds were rolling in and the wind picking up. We were lucky that this only got worse at the end of the tour when we headed home. Otherwise we have dry, calm conditions to enjoy the incredible wildlife of Faxaflói. We stopped at the island of Engey, an island super close to the harbour to visit the Atlantic puffins and then visited the whales further a shore. We in total found 3 humpback whales and a curious minke whale. All of the whales were very relaxed, travelling slowly through the water however, this afternoon they were taking slightly deeper dives and showed us their beautiful flukes on a couple of occasions. A perfect day

- Megan Whittaker

Report from Hafsúlan: Good weather and flat seas made for a promising tour, and gave me high hopes as my first try as lead guide. However our first humpback sighting decided to go for a deep dive and disappear we travelled out into the centre of the bay and saw no animals besides the cute puffins until finally we managed to spot a second humpback tracvelling beside the boat and keeping speed with us at 3 knots. Just as we decided to leave this individual it decided to breach, some lucky people on the boat saw it, others only caught the splash, but the animal decided not to breach again and we left to search for 2 humpbacks that were reported close to Reykjavik harbour. Within no time we were subjected to a lucky sight, Stu, a humpback that frequents Faxafloi bay was diving in tandem with a smaller friend he made. The animals showed off their tail flukes and surfaces for breathes together in a rather graceful dance to finish off the trip.

- Liam van Walsum

Report from RIBs: The wind picked up a bit, making ripples on the sea surface, making conditions for spotting a bit harder, but we managed to find a lot of different animals! First we saw 2 humpback whales relaxed, very slowly traveling together. One individual was a smaller one and it looked like the one we've been seeing during the whole week - with "spikey" dorsal back line and not fluking much. The other individual was a fully grown adult, which fluked up few times. After awhile, we headed further out to the ocean in search for other animals. We passed by a single harbour porpoise but we saw it very nicely, as it showed a big part of its body while surfacing. After a bit of search on the west side of Faxafloi, we found another bigger humpback in the middle of the bay, closer to Reykjavik. There was also a minke whale just in front of us and 1-2 harbour porpoises surfacing slowly around our boat! When we started heading back to the harbour, we came across with again smaller humpback, for which we aren't sure if it was the same individual as from the beginning of our tour or a new one, as we haven't seen it long enough to confirm. During the ride back, we smelled a familiar fishy smell and soon saw another minke whale passing by. What an incredible tour! 

- Tena Sarcevic 

Eider duck, greater black-backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, black-legged kittiwake, arctic tern, atlantic puffin, common guillemot, black guillemot, herring gull, northern fulmar, northern gannet