Friday, 25 August 2023

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00, 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00 Premium Whale tour and on our lovely vessel Eldey and Hafsúla  for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00 and 17:00 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
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 12:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 16:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 17:00

Report from Hafsulan: Today was a very nice tour. We sailed out with a sunny weather and a light wind and right after leaving the port we saw one pod of 4 harbour porpoises swimming quite close. It was a very good start for the tour but we could not stop and we had to sail a bit more further out to check some more wildlife. After a while we spotted 1 pod of white beaked dolphins jumping and then surfing the bow waves. Suddenly we were just surrounded by few more individuals and we could see them everywhere around. Once we ran out the time we started our journey back to the Old Harbor and we spotted again the tiny creatures of the beginning: many more porpoises!!

- Marta Filippini

Report from Eldey: The sea conditions were still amazing with a very flat and calm sea and nice sunlight. We sailed smoothly through the bay searching for wildlife, crossed a few of the last Atlantic puffins and 2 pods of harbour porpoises that quickly disappeared. We kept going and found a minke whale then probably 4 more for a total of 5 minke whales in total. Those whales were probably feeding in this area and were surfacing more or less far, coming a couple of times at only 10 meters from the boat. We could even see the white patches they have on their pectoral fins. In the same area majestic northern gannets were showing off with their plunge-diving. We explored a bit more the area and when we were out of time started heading back, crossing another pod of 2-3 harbour porpoises.

- Miquel Pons

Report from Eldey: We sailed out in the beautiful bay of Faxafloi. The conditions were very good as there was only low swell and beautiful sunshine. We sailed out to an area where we had sightings on previous tours. On the way out we sailed through a very thick and dense fog cloud in which we could not see further than 30 meters. Luckily the sky cleared up again and we saw the first Northern Gannets of the tour. They kept entertaining us with their acrobatic plunge dives and we also took that as a good sign because that means that there is a lot of fish near the surface. We kept all our eyes open to find any cetaceans. We did not have to wait long and soon spotted a minke whale. It was quite elusive and tricky to follow but we managed to see it 5 times. We then continued our search for other cetaceans and soon found a very active pod of around 8 white beaked dolphins. They kept jumping and came very close to our boat. It was a very enjoyable encounter but we also had to start our way back to Reykjavik. We spotted another 4 elusively travelling harbour porpoises.

-Lasse Roggenkamp

Report from Eldey: We sailed out in a quite calm but foggy bay. After some time we found a minke whale that was very elusive so only the lucky ones got a chance to see it. We tried to find it again but it seemed to have vanished and we did not find it again. We decided to try to find something else and found a pod of around 6 white beaked dolphins. They were quite elusive as well and did not seem to be interested in any kind of interaction with us. We were lucky with the high numbers of Northern Gannets all around us that went for spectacular plunge dives but we were not so lucky with the cetaceans sightings today so we offered complimentary tickets so everybody has the chance to come back on a tour with us for free.

-Lasse Roggenkamp