Monday, 17 July 2023

 Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 16:00 Premium Whale tour and on our lovely vessel Eldey, Hafsúla and Elding  for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 14:00, 17:00 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
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 12:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 16:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 17:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 20:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 20:30

Report from Eldey: The sun was shining and the waves were gently rocking us to a slight to medium breeze. We sailed out of the harbour into the bay and admired the beautiful landscape of mountains and erupting volcanos. After some time we spotted our first cetacean which was a minke whale. But this one was not alone, many more minkes were surrounding us in this area. We guess that it was at least 10 different individuals. Some of the minkes came closer than others and we saw so many fins and backs glisten in the beautiful sunshine. How lovely! Then we decided to go further out we encountered a curious bird, a northern fulmar that almost landed on a passengers arm. This kept us entertained for a while until we saw the fluke of a humpback whale disappear just under the surface. We turned around to take a couple of quick looks at this cool animal because it was not just fluking up but also lunge feeding and spy hopping! Such a cool behaviour! With these images in mind we sailed back home under no wind and lovely sunny waether.

- Cindy Schwenk

Report from Hafsúlan: We started the tour under a sunny sky. We were all very excited as we were heading off the harbor. Some time later we spotted our first cetacean. It was a minke whale. Then we realized we were on a feeding ground after we saw hundreds of birds flying around and more minkes fishing in the distance. We got to spend some time with 3 different Minke whales. After that, we headed back home with a very comfortable ride.

-Nicolás Corral

Report from Eldey: We had beautiful sunny conditions which made our way out to an area where we had a sighting the same morning very enjoyable. After some time we encountered an elusive Minke whale. It turned out that there were about 4 minke whales around and we stayed there for some time. We continued our search further out and soon spotted a blow of a larger cetacean species. It belonged to a humpback whale that we had seen on previous tours already. After a beautiful fluke dive we were able to Photo-ID that individual. Its name is Davy Jones II. On our way back the sun was still shining and we enjoyed the view of the beautiful city of Reykjavik. 

-Lasse Roggenkamp

Report from Hafsulan: We sailed into the bay under lovely blue skies, the sea was also pretty calm. Nobody felt the waves at all. We had to sail quite a long way to get to our destination. Along the way we did briefly also see a minke whale and 2 pods of white beaked dolphins. These pods were both about 5-7 individuals. We carried on and got hugely rewarded. We came across a humpback whale, one that we know well and love called Davy Jones II. He was in close proximity to some white beaked dolphins that were jumping out the water and coming very close to the boat. There was 8 exciting dolphins. Davy Jones II also gave us a good show, he fluke dived a few times and we could also see his pectoral fins. It was so nice! We then sailed back against the wind and under the sun, it was perfect.

- Rob Hyman

Report from Eldey: The weather was still amazing, sunny but a bit wavey but spotting conditions were very good. We sailed out to look at all the cool mountains and the volcanic eruption from a distance and after about an hour of sailing we saw a blow by other boats. This blow turned out to be from a humpback whale! This whale was very slow and calm and occasionally went for short deep dives. We admired this whale for some time and after a couple of deep dives it started to approach our boat from very very close. It was so close that the whale almost touched our boat! For a long time we just stayed stationary watching it pop up left and then on the right and in front of us. It was an amazing experience and we even had the chance to identify this whale as Davy Jones II. We had seen this whale on all of our tours today. After experiencing this whale come up close to us for 3 times it was time for us to leave this animal and head back home. One amazing encounter that had everyone super excited and made happy faces on the way back.

- Cindy Schwenk

Report from Eldey:  With calm seas and sun in our face we sailed out to Faxaflói bay on this wonderful midnight tour. We encounter 1 humpback whale who gave quite the show. We noticed blows in the distance and headed that way, as we got closer it breached not once but three times and afterwards did pectoral slapping for good 10 minutes. Accompanying him was small pod of whitebeaked dolphins, 5-6 of them. Though we did not have other encounters we were absolutely blissed out after meeting that one humpback. Way sailed back to harbour with the setting sun and gorgeous pink skies.

-Kristín

Atlantic puffin, Arctic tern, Northern gannet, Northern fulmar, common guillemot, black guillemot, Arctic skua, black legged kittiwake, great and lesser black backed gull, eider duck and black headed gull