Monday, 18 July 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00 and 14:00 Premium Whale tours and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 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
• 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 sanitiser is advised. Masks are not mandatory but are recommended in areas where keeping distance from others is not possible.

Report from Eldey: We set out with the calmest weather, no wind or waves. We admired the mirror like seas and after a while we found ourselves our first humpback whale. We saw it deep dive and got a good glimpse of its fluke. This happened multiple times and everyone was very happy to see these magnificent creatures. In the same area we found 2 more humpbacks, probably feeding like this one. At the same time more and more minke whales started popping up in the vicinity and we got a good look at at least 2 or 3 of them. The sea was also full of interesting birds and Atlantic  puffins today. What a great trip!

- Cindy Schwenk

Report from Eldey: The day had been a success already and on this tour we had plenty of life in the bay! The trip started with a first sighting of a humpback whale that was taking very long dives and showing up every time in a different place, so as if it was looking for food. While we were waiting for it to surface again suddenly a minke whale appeared quite close to our boat, and this was just the first out of 7 minke whales. Like a dance of hunger we could see two of the minkes surfacing just in the middle of feeding seabirds. A second and a third humpback were in the area. One of them was our known and beloved Liney, a humpback whale that visited us in the bay many times during last month and today it showed us its fluke while going for deep dives. White-beaked dolphins were the stars of the tour today. We had 3 pods of about 10 individuals each. Two of them were jumping out of the water, one of them reaching I would say about 7 meters high, and it tried higher! Two pods of about 3 harbour porpoises also crossed its paths with us, swimming nicely and all in a sudden dissapearing in the blue. Lively beautiful tour.

Report from Hafsulan: flat waters and no wind made for a perfect day at sea. Although it 

was cloudy, the fact that it wasn't raining made for s comfortable and enjoyable sail. The 

day started out great with the sighting of a humpback whale going up and down the water 

column. This surfaced very often, showing the fluke when going for deep dives. As this one 

seemed more interested in reaching some deep food than in us, we went away from the area; 

while traveling, we got to observe some nice minke whales, which were popping all around 

us. Soon we spotted some white beaked dolphins, which proved to be extra curious about us, 

coming really close and checking out the bow. After these dispersed, we rached to some 

spots where some very busy birds were making a lot of noise while taking advantage of some 

food or krill placed close to the surface. We spotted a humpback whale approaching the 

numerous flock; after a dive, the whale popped up underneath the unaware birds, which flew 

away in a rush. The whale seemed to have caught a lot of fish in its mouth, and it looked 

like it was adjusting the catch in it, keeping the mouth open while moving the head and 

the body. Thanks to that, we got to admire its line of baleen plates, a rare sight. It was 

quite a scene overall!!
-Francesco Golin

Report from Hafsulan: Such nice tour for 2 pm with a perfect sea conditions. Our first sighting was 1 humpback whale that was mostly feeding but came up at the surface quite often. passengers were quite happy to see the fluke for the first time. Then we started to focus on different birds patch where looked like there was a lot of food. A bunch of different minke whale were aournd us. First 2 minke whales came up several time at the surface. Few minutes later, an area was full of bird and we could see 1 minke whale lunge feeding at the surface several time. It was very nice to see while another 1 minke whale was close to our boat in the other side and another 1 minke whale was a bit further away. We started to follow our road and we spotted again another humpback, I think it was the same individual. This one was breathing at the surface and came closer to a group of birds where there was probably a lot of food. Then we started to head back to Reykjavik, happy to have seen these animals. 

- Enorha Guimard

Report from Hafsulan: Like the rest of the day, the sea was very calm during this midnight tour. There was very little wind so it was not very cold on the ocean. The sky was covered in dark clouds and we had a very light rain during a few minutes, but we stayed dry most of the time. We were heading out when we had our first sighting, a minke whale, probably feeding that we saw surfacing a few times. We continued and spotted a humpback whale non far from us. We got closer and recognized Liney, a well known female from this summer. Liney seemed to be travelling during a few minutes, then it came very close on our right side. The whale turned and crossed our boat, only 20 meters from us. Unfortunately, a rib boat from a particular came to see the whale as well, clearly not knowing the rules to approach the whales, going to fast and to close. The humpback got a bit angry with a loud blow and some movement of the tail. The captains contacted this rib boat that seemed to understand better how to observe whales, keeping a bit more distance. We left the area to find something else and quickly spotted a pod of 4-5 white-beaked dolphins. They were not very friendly so we kept our distance seeing them coming close to each other at the surface a few times. It was late and we headed back seeing a minke whale here and there. A very pleasant and nice tour!

- Miquel Pons

Atlantic puffin, common guillemot, black guillemot, lesser and greater black backed gulls, Arctic tern, northern fulmar, Manx shearwater, European storm petrel, Arctic skua, herring gull, black-legged kittiwake, northern gannet, greylag goose, eider duck, European shag.