Friday, 6 August 2021

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Friday 6 August 2021

Friday, 6 August 2021

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00, 14:00 and 20:00 Premium tour and our lovely vessel Elding for the 09:00 and 13:00 Classic tour. Make sure to dress appropriately for the tours as it is always colder on sea than on land. Join us by booking online or contact us directly for more information (elding@elding.is / +354 519 5000).

✔ CLASSIC WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 09:00

Report from Eldey: The weather was incredible as we headed out from the harbour this morning. The sun was shining, there was no wind and the sea was like it was made out of glass. We decided to head far north in the bay as we had not been successful in the south areas of it the day before. On our way north, we spotted a pod of about 5 harbour porpoises, but they were true to their nature and did not come close to the boat and quickly went away. About 3 miles further up north, we found another pod of about 5 harbour porpoises, behaving in a similar way to the other ones. At the same time, we spotted a blow from a humpback whale, that we approached and observed for about half an hour. The humpback was very relaxed, resting, and did not go down for long did dives and we rarely saw its fluke. Around the humpback, we saw at least one minke whale, but maybe there was another one. The minke whale was feeding and not very social, so we watched the humpback more closely. On the way back we enjoyed the calm sea with the sun in our face.

- Fróði Guðmundur Jónsson

✔ PREMIUM WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 10:00

Report from Þruma RIB: All the ingredients for a great whale watching tour were present today : flat sea, no wind, sun and of course the main ingredient, whales. We went directly to an area where we headed from other boats that there was a humpback whale, but turned out they lied to us because there were 3 humpbacks and 2 minke whales. We stayed mainly with one of the humpback that was nicely swimming sometime coming close to our boat. The animal was very relaxed but decided to make this tour upgrade to another level with a very close breach ! We stayed until we had to leave, seeing another minke whale on the way back and having a short stop to see the puffins near their burrows in Engey.

- Miquel Pons

✔ CLASSIC WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE 13:00

✔ PREMIUM PUFFIN TOUR ON SCHEDULE 13:00

✔ SEA ANGLING TOUR ON SCHEDULE 13:00

✔ PREMIUM WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 14:00

Report from Þruma RIB: Still the same type of weather even if the wind picked up a bit and the sea was a little bit more choppy. We started with the puffins and went back to the same area than this morning. There was much less bird activity and no whales so we headed more south finding a humpback whale. The animal was moving pretty fast so we followed it observing 3 or 4 fluke dives and we went to another humpback whale that another boat was observing. We arrived, saw it go for a deep dive and we left because another whale breached further away ! This third humpback was very calm and relaxed when we arrived. We stayed with it hoping that it would jump again but it did not. We were late so we had to leave. We still stopped to observe the 3-4 white beaked dolphins that we crossed during the way back. We also saw a fourth humpback far away but we really had to go back to the harbour.

- Miquel Pons

✔ CLASSIC MIDNIGHT WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 19:00

Report from Eldey: Warm air, little wind and thin clouds over the sun was the weather that greeted us on our evening tour. We soon saw at least 10 white-beaked dolphins all around us, bowriding and jumping all the way up from the water and landing on their back. Then the big treat came: a breaching humpback whale! It breached at least three times, and one of the breaches was straight in front of the boat only 20 meters in front of us! In the surround area, we saw at least one more humpback, maybe two, but we focused our eyes on the breaching one. It tail-slapped a bit as well, then slapped its pectoral fins on the water. The reason for its activity was maybe that there were so many dolphins around it and in the area and it maybe got a bit annoyed by them. We saw countless beautiful fluke dives from this large individual, and in the end we unfortunately had to go back home after this amazing evening tour.

- Fróði Guðmundur Jónsson

✔ PREMIUM WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 20:00

Report from Þruma RIB: This day was great and it had to have a good ending. If the sky was covered by clouds, the weather was still excellent for whale watching. We started as usual with puffins and went out to see what the bay had for us tonight. A boat told us about a humpback whale so we headed toward that boat. We saw from faraway a big jump from the whale ! We were very excited to see if it would still do it when we would be closer, there was white beaked dolphins but we could not stop. We approached and waited. The humpback whale was playing with white beaked dolphins, rolling, and swimming side way. We were not really expecting it when the whale breached three times in a row ! What a show ! After that it start travelling out. We followed it for a while and came back to Reykjavik. Perfect whale watching day.

- Miquel Pons

Bird species observed: northern gannets, northern fulmars, puffins, common guillemot, black guillemot, great skua, arctic skua, arctic tern, black legged kittiwake, herring gull, lesser black backed gull, greater black backed gull.

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.