Monday, 16 August 2021

Monday 16 August 2021

✔ CLASSIC WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 09:00

Report from Eldey: In spite the day broke completely cloudy and with nice swell the whales showed up as soon as we started the tour. There were 2 humpback whales in front of us! While we were going to see them from a closer look it turned out we had 2 more humpback whales further away. Powerful blows and flukes raising above the water surface: Perfect views against the city of Reykjavík in the background. Amazing tour that will stay in the retina of our passengers for a long time for sure!

- Estel Sanchez Cami

✔ PREMIUM WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  10:00

Report Þruma RIB : The sky was covered in clouds and there was shorts drops of light rain near Reykjavik, but not when we were out in the bay. The sea was still rocky but the long swell allowed us to really enjoy the tour on the rib boat. We directly went for the whales because we heared from other captains that whales were close of the harbour. We went there and saw 2 humpback whales hanging out together. They were very synchronized going into deep dives almost at the same time. It was so nice to see those huge animals be together. Once they turned unexpectedly passing very close to our boat making us feel quite small in the ocean. Once they made both a fluke dive we recognize that one of those cetacean was actually Davy Jones that we have seen so many times. We left because other boats arrived and we did not want to crowd around those nice animals. We went to another humpback whale that we saw previously. This one was feeding but also swimming very fast so maybe both travelling and feeding. We followed it for a while until we crossed Davy Jones again that was feeding in the area. We had to go back and stopped to sea the puffins. What a nice tour !

- Miquel Pons

✔ CLASSIC WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 13:00

Report from Eldey: There was less wind than in the morning as we headed out from Reykjavík, but there was a bit of a swell in the ocean. Much sooner than anticipated, we saw a humpback whale, just outside the islands out from the city harbour! It was resting, maybe sleeping, so we did not stay with it for a very long time. We quickly saw 2 minke whales, but they were both travelling fast so we couldn't really stop to look at them. However, we saw the blow of another humpback whale and went over to that one, and this one was more active than the other one. It showed its fluke a couple of times and came really high up out of the water with its back to breath. We then had the word of a fin whale in the bay, and decided to see if that was correct. And guess what, we found the fin whale! It was probably not an adult as it was around 18 meters I would guess, but still the length of it was just jaw-dropping! We followed it travelling for about 1-2 kilometers, but then decided to move away from it because of course other boats had started to accumulate around it. However, we had had very good views of it so that was no problem. We moved to the third humpback whale of the tour, and this one had a huge scar on its left side, just behind its head. I have not seen it before, but it was probably from a ship engine or something similarly large. It gave us a couple of fluke dives before we moved a little further up in the bay. There, we spotted a pod of around 7-9 white-beaked dolphins. They were a bit shy but did approach the boat a little bit so we got a close look at them for about 5 minutes before we headed back to Reykjavík after an amazing tour.

- Fróði Guðmundur Jónsson

✔  PREMIUM WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 14:00

Report from Þruma: The strong wind from the previous days created a swell in the bay, providing some up and down movement. However, the swell was long with no breaking waves which meant it was easy to navigate. The whales remained quite close to the city and within 10 minutes of sailing arrived in an area where we wanted to focus our search. Two minutes of resting, the blow of a humpback whale became visible within 200 metres. We watched the whale feed multiple times under a small group of Arctic terns for over twenty minutes. The whale routinely lifting its fluke for the deeper dives but its movements were unpredictable, presumably resultant of herding the small sand eels that were noticeable in the beaks of the surrounding birds. We decided to search other areas of the bay with little success, encountering a small pod of three harbour porpoises, before returning one last time to see the humpback then heading home. 

- Mike Smith

✔ CLASSIC WHALE WATCHING ON SCHEDULE | 19:00

Report from Eldey: There was still a bit of a swell in the ocean when we went out for our evening tour. It also looked like it might rain a bit, but fortunately, it did not. We had not been out for a long while when we spotted a humpback whale blow. We went closer to that, and then we saw another humpback whale breaching in the distance! We decided to go closer to that, but had trouble locating it – not because we couldn't find it, but because there were 5 humpbacks at the same place! There were only about 100-200 meters between each individual, and in the next 5 minutes, at least two of them breached. This might have been a social dominance display for both of them, as one also rolled on its side and slapped its pectoral fin repeatedly on the surface of the water. We decided to follow that one – and luckily we did. It proceeded to breach over 50 times in the tour! It probably breached close to 80-100 times – and this is no exaggeration! This huge individual just kept on breaching and in between doing some pectoral fin slapping and a few sequences of impressive tail slapping. We watched it for the entire tour as it breached all around the boat again and again, with our mouths wide open in these jaw-dropping moments. Absolutely a contender for the best tour of the summer.

- Fróði Guðmundur Jónsson

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