Friday, 29 July 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00 Premium Whale tours and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00, 10:00, 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 | 16:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 20:00
• 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 sanitizer is advised. Masks are not mandatory but are recommended in areas where keeping distance from others is not possible.

Report from Eldey: sunny but rocky day at sea today, with frequent tall waves which rendered the sail challenging. Fortunately, there wasn't much wind, which made the sail a bit more comfortable. It took some time before we could spot a distant humpback whale breaching out of the water, slapping the pectoral fin and producing huge splashes! Once arrived at the spot we found out that we just arrived in a whale hotspot, with another humpback and 4 minke whales feeding in the area, with plenty of seabirds like arctic skuas, gulls and manx shearwaters which were too in a feeding frenzy. We could stay around the feeding and diving whales for a while, observing them when they were coming up to the surface and often quite close to the ship. On the way back we could see another fluke-diving humpback, which coronated the end of out trip.

-Melanie Magnan

Report from Hafsúlan: Our adventure this morning was a bit cold and with a choppy sea, but it didn't get in our way to spot these whales. Going further away from the harbour, we went to an area where we could see other boats, and it was when we saw a blow closer to them that we understood it: we had a humpback whale at the area! This one was going for deep dives, but not taking longer to come back to the surface. It also stayed a bit underneath the surface, very slow, allowing us to check its white and huge pectoral fins. We saw 2 minke whales in the same area, swimming close to a big flock of birds, but they were very elusive and we couldn't see it again. On the way back home, we saw another humpback, in which showed us its beautiful fluke before going for a deep dive again. In the same area, we spot a small pod of white-beaked dolphins, and we could see one of them coming closer to us, bowriding. The bay was full of life this morning, as a good way to start our day!

- Milla Brandao

Report from Eldey: The seas were still rocky this afternoon but everyone was warned in advance and some sea sickness tablets were taken in prevention. We sailed for some time before we arrived in the whale hotspot area. Birds were feeding in a big flock and we noticed some minke whakes. In total as we navigated through this feeding area for some time we have seen about 7 individual minke whales. Some were more busy feeding, so not really interested in us, and some curious minkes surfaced by our vessel really close. We even had a minke whale coming right by the starboard side of the ship blowing some bubbles barely a few meters away from us. It was super nice to see them that close interacting with us. Then it was time to head back toward the harbour while observing some of the nice sea bird diversity we have in Iceland.

- Francesco aka "the tall Cod"

Report from Eldey : The seas have slightly calmed down since our afternoon trip. The wind has increased though which does make it a bit chilly if you did want to stay outside unequipped ... Feels like a midnight sun tour in overalls to keep warm in the upper deck ! The sky though is slowly clearing out which makes the sail being one with sun in our faces. We started off by navigating close to the coast to make it more comfortable, to then go offshore when arriving toward the area where we had seen whales in the previous tours. A blow of what we thought to be a minke whale was spotted from the distance a few times, but unfortunately for us the whale was not too keen in showing up more, probably busier doing its whale life rather than coming to breathe at the surface in the vicinity of our boat. Later on the pictures we actually realized it was a humpback whale that was having a very small blow and being very shy. We saw another individual minke whale blowing in the distance for just a short time. As we did not get lucky, we handed out some complimentary tickets to the passengers, hoping they will come back again to enjoy the beautiful views of cetaceans in their natural environment.
This is wildlife, completely unpredictable, nothing is ever guaranteed, and this also is what is beautiful about it.

- Miquel Pons

Northern Gannet, black-legged kittiwake, common guillemots, black guillemot, Atlantic puffins, Arctic skua, Manx shearwater, greater and lesser black-backed gull, herring gull, Arctic tern, storm petrel, eider duck