Saturday, 12 November 2022

 Today we will be operating 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
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00

 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 sanitizer is advised.  

Report from Eldey: It was raining before the tour but we left the harbour under a clear sky. If we went through clouds wind and rain again during the tour we mostly had a good weather. In Iceland, if you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes. The sea condition was excellent and the visibility as well. We saw a blow in the distance and started getting closer when a pod of 4-6 white-beaked dolphins came close tour our vessel bow riding and clearly visible while swimming parallel to the boat. We kept going and found the humpback whale that created the blow previously spotted. The animal was going for a deep dive showing a peppery tail with mixed black and white. It's Pep! One of our favorite humpbacks. There was big flocks of birds close by so probably the animal was feeding as well. We saw it surfacing again and could see a few sequences like this with often a fluke dive. Then 5-7 white beaked dolphins arrived and escorted the humpback and calves were doing little jumps around Pep. The whale kept calmly swimming, probably used to the behaviour of those little dolphins rascals. Before we left Pep came in our direction surfaced a few meters from our vessel giving us a unique moment before diving under out vessel and getting away. We saw it one last time showing us the tail like saying goodbye and came back to the harbour under a pleasant sunlight.

- Miquel Pons

Report from Eldey: A shifting weather during this Saturday afternoon, with many clouds, cold wind and light sprays of rain, but with the sun appearing from time to time. As we sailed into the bay and admired the beautiful Esja and Akrafjall, we recounted the biology and the ecology of whales, and talked about their long migrations from Africa, the Carribeans, and Iceland. While searching for whales we reached the limits of our normal journey, as it was taking us quite a while to find some cetacean. All of a sudden, in the glimmer of the water we saw the silhouette of some dorsal fins: a small pod of 3 white beaked dolphins was there, swimming around us but maintaining a careful distance. We started keeping and eye out and following them, but it started to look like a chase and the dolphins didn't look like they wanted to do anything with us. Therefore, we moved away from this pod, looking for some other animal that was more in a mood for whale watching. That's when we saw some splashes in the horizon, caused by the jumps of a small pod of two mothers with each a juvenile by the side. A successful whale watching tour with nice dolphin families!

-Francesco Golin

Eider duck, glaucous gull, Iceland gull, herring gull, black-backed gull, sooty shearwater, common guillemot, razorbill, black-legged kittiwake, European cormorant, northern fulmar