Monday, 18 September 2023

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00 and 14:00 Premium Whale tour and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00 and 13:00  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, 13:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00, 14:00

Report from Eldey: our morning today was very sunny and on calm seas, although we still had a bit swell when we were very far out. Even though we had the sun shining on our faces, we could still feel a chilly wind coming from the North. So we sailed out ready to spot anything around us. Our first sighting was with a pod of 5 white-beaked dolphins, that were a bit tricky, changing directions constantly, but we were patient and we could see them very nicely before we continued our trip. Not far out, we spotted a minke whale passing by, but this one was spending quite a while underwater, so after seeing it a couple of times more, we decided to check some splashes coming from another area. Getting there, we had another pod of white-beaked dolphins, feeding in a productive area full of fish and seabirds as well. We had about 30 dolphins all around us, they were coming quite close and bowriding, so we could basically look at any direction and we could have a nice look from one! After this lovely sighting, we started sailing back to Reykjavik, but first we spotted another minke whale in the bay, that was still a bit tricky, but we could have a look at it before we headed back home.

- Milla Brandao

Report from Eldey: We sailed out this afternoon hopeful of more cetaceans after a lovely morning. It was a bit trickier this afternoon, the cetaceans didn't seem to be as sociable. There were 2 occasions we saw a minke whale but only for one surface then never again. As the tour continued we searched in different areas but the cetaceans continued to evade us. As we started to lose hope we got an incredible surprise. A humpback whale had appeared! We have seen this individual a few times this year already. When we first spotted it we saw about 8 blows in the distance. Then once we were closer we saw it surface lots. We got to see two fluke dives as well which was amazing. This is how we could identify it. It was really great to see a humpback whale back in the bay again with them being less frequent over the last few weeks. We then headed home after a lovely ending to the tour.

- Rob Hyman